Audra Mc Donald

Audra McDonald's artistry is unmatched in the range and variety of her work in her roles as a performer, singer as well as an actor. The winner of a record-breaking six Tony Awards two Grammy Awards and one Emmy Award in 2015 she was ranked among Time magazine's 100 most influential individuals and was awarded the National Medal of Art, which is America's highest honor for achievement in the arts--from the President Barack Obama. Because of her stunning soprano's tone and unsurpassed gift of telling compelling stories She has had success on Broadway as well as at the opera as well as for television and film. Apart from her theater job, she is also pursuing an active career as a singer and a concert artist. She is regularly performing in the best venues of the world. A musically inclined family, McDonald grew up in Fresno California and received her singing training in the classical style at the New York's Juilliard School. Following her graduation, she was awarded her first Tony Award as Best Performance by an Featured Artist in an Musical in the Lincoln Center Theater for Carousel (1994). Over the next four years, she was awarded two more Tony Awards as a featured actress for her roles in Terrence Mcnally's Broadway debuts Master Class (1996) and Ragtime (1998). The total number of Tony Awards is unprecedented at 3 before the age of thirty. In 2004, she took home her fourth Tony starring alongside Sean Diddy Combs in A Raisin in the Sun and in 2012 she won her fifth--and her first in the lead actress category in the role of her lead in The Gershwins Porgy and Bess. In 2014 she made Broadway history and became the Tony Awards most decorated performer in six awards in the role of Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill the role which was also the vehicle for her Olivier Award-nominated performance in the 2017 season of the London's West End. In addition to making history with the most competitive wins by an actor as well as becoming the first person to receive honors for all four categories of acting. Other credits in the theater includes The Secret Garden (1993) Marie Christine (1999) Henry IV (2004) 110 in the Shade (2007) Twelfth Night (2009) which marked her Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park debut, the show Shuffle Along or The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed (2016) Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (2019) as well as Ohio State Murders (2023). It was the Peabody Award-winning CBS program Having Our Say The Delany Sisters The First 100 Years which initially introduced McDonald viewers to her talents as a dramatic actress. Her next role was as a recurring actor on NBC's Law & Order Special Victims Unit and she appeared with Kathy Bates and Victor Garber. McDonald was awarded her first Emmy for her performance in her role in the HBO remake of the Pulitzer Prize winning play Wit directed by Mike Nichols, starring Emma Thompson. In 2003, she returned to television but this time on Mister Sterling produced by Emmy Award-winning Lawrence O'Donnell Jr., starring Josh Brolin. The Bedford Diaries on the WB at the beginning of 2006, and Kidnapped, NBC. McDonald received a fourth Emmy for her portrayal of Lady Day in Emerson's Bar & Grill on HBO in the year 2016. The Bite is a drama with six episodes based on the pandemic that was co-produced by Spectrum Originals & CBS Studios. The show featured her with Taylor Schilling & Steven Pasquale. McDonald played U.S. prosecutor Liz Lawrence in the first episode of her role appeared in CBS's The Good Wife legal drama in 2009. The role was reprised in 2018as the Season regular Liz Reddick in Paramount+'s The Good Fight. In recognition of her role, McDonald received three Critics Choice Award nominees. The actress is currently a guest on Julian Fellowes' historical drama The Gilded Age on HBO.