Audra Mc Donald

Audra McDonald is unmatched with the variety and breadth of her artistry as both acting and singing. She was the recipient of record-breaking 6 Tony Awards two Grammy Awards as well as An Emmy Award in 2015 she was named among Time magazine's 100 most influential people and received the National Medal for Arts --America's most prestigious award for excellence within the field--from President Barack Obama. With a soprano of unmatched beauty, and an ability to tell the truth in a dramatic way Her roles in Broadway or in the opera are as comfortable like those on film and TV. Her career has been successful in concert and recording, appearing regularly at some of the most prestigious performances around the globe. McDonald was born into a musically inclined household in Fresno, California. She was a classical singer who received training at The Juilliard School of New York. Her first Tony Award in 1994 for the top performance of an actress who was featured in a musical, Carousel and was presented at Lincoln Center Theater. Through the course of four years she also won two Tony Awards in the featured actress category for her performances during performances in the Broadway performances of the world premiere of Terrence McNally's Play Master Class (1996) and the musical Ragtime (1998) making the record-breaking total of three Tony Awards before the age of thirty. She received her fourth Tony in 2004 when she starred alongside Sean Diddy Combs in A Raisin in the Sun and in 2012. In 2012, she won five Tonys, her first one in the category leading actress, for her role in The Gershwins Porgy and Bess as the title role. She made Broadway history by becoming the Tony Awards most decorated performer when she won her sixth award for her performance in Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill the role that also served as the vehicle for her Olivier Award-nominated debut in the London's West End. Also, she broke the record for the most awards won by an actor. The credits for McDonald's theatre work comprise The Secret Garden (1993) Marie Christine (99) Henry IV (2005) 110 in the Shade (2006) Twelfth Nacht (2009) the latter of which was the Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park debut, Shuffle Along or The Making of the Musical sensation from 1921 & Everything That Followed (2017) Frankie and Johnny in Clair de Lune (2018) and Ohio State Murders 2023. McDonald was first introduced to the television audience for her dramatic performance in Peabody Award winning CBS's Having Our Say: A look at the Delany Sisters first 100 years. McDonald was later cast as a co-star with Kathy Bates and Victor Garber in the highly acclaimed 1999 remake by ABC and Disney of Annie and in 2000 she played a regular role on the NBC's cult series Law & Order Special Victims Unit. McDonald was awarded her first Emmy for her part of The HBO adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize winning play Wit written by Mike Nichols, starring Emma Thompson. In 2003, she made her return to the screen, this time with Mister Sterling produced by Emmy Award winner Lawrence O'Donnell Jr., starring Josh Brolin. Then, in the year 2006, McDonald joined WB's The Bedford Diaries. The following year, she became an occasional actor on NBC's Kidnapped. McDonald got a 4th Emmy award for her role in HBO's special film of Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill in the year 2016. She was a part of Taylor Schilling and Steven Pasquale in The Bite a six-episode pandemic-themed drama produced by Spectrum Originals and CBS Studios in 2021. She starred in 2009 as U.S. Attorney Liz Lawrence on CBS's legal drama The Good Wife. In 2018 McDonald took on the role of Liz Reddick as a regular on Paramount+'s The Good Fight. She received three Critics Choice Award nods for this performance. She is currently in the role of a guest star on Julian Fellowes's historical thriller The Gilded Age on HBO.