Audra Mc Donald

Audra McDonald is unrivaled in the breadth and versatility of her artistry as both an actress and a performer. The winner of a record-breaking 6 Tony Awards two Grammy Awards as well as an Emmy Award in 2015 she was ranked among Time magazine's top 100 influential individuals and was awarded the National Medal of Arts--America's highest award for accomplishment in the arts--from the President Barack Obama. She is equally at home in television, film as well as Broadway. Her stunning soprano is a perfect fit for the stage. In addition to her work in the theater, McDonald also has established a successful profession as a recording and concert artist. She was born into a musical family. McDonald grew up within Fresno California and received her classical vocal training at New York's Juilliard School. Following her graduation, she was awarded the very debut Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in the Musical Carousel at Lincoln Center Theater (1994). In the subsequent four years she received two more Tony Awards under the featured actress category. They were awarded in recognition of her Broadway performances of Terrence McGally's productions Master Class and Ragtime. In 2004, she took home her fourth Tony acting alongside Sean Diddy Combs in A Raisin in the Sun and in 2012 she won her fifth--and her first for the category of leading actress in the role of her lead in The Gershwins Porgy and Bess. In the year she received her sixth Tony Award in 2014 the role of Billie Holiday in Lady Day in Emerson's Bar & Grill has become Broadway's highest-rated show. In 2017 she was the first to make the West End London West End debut and was nominated for an Olivier Award. In addition to setting the record as the most wins in a competitive area by an actor she also became the first person ever to receive awards in the four acting categories. McDonald has also been featured in other theatre productions which include The Secret Garden (1993) Marie Christine (1999), Henry IV 2004 110 in the Shade (2006) Twelfth Nigh (2009); this also was the Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park debut show, Shuffle Along Or the Making of the Musical Sense of 1921, and all That Followed (16) Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (192019) 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 that was the first to introduce McDonald to television audiences as a dramatic actor. The year 1999 saw her starred along with Kathy Bates in ABC's acclaimed remake of Annie. In addition, she played regularly recurring roles on NBC's Law & Order Special Victims Unit in 2000. McDonald's first Emmy came for the HBO film version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit. The film was directed by Mike Nichols with Emma Thompson as the lead the actress returned to television networks in 2003. She starred in Mister Sterling and produced by Emmy Award winner Lawrence O'Donnell Jr. The Bedford Diaries on the WB in early 2006 and Kidnapped, NBC. McDonald got a 4th Emmy award for her role in HBO's special film of Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill in 2016. The Bite was a six episodes pandemic-themed drama created through Spectrum Originals in collaboration with CBS Studios. McDonald, who first appeared in The Good Wife, a CBS legal drama The Good Wife as U.S. attorneys Liz Lawrence and Liz Reddick from 2009 to 2018. She reprised her roles (now named Liz Reddick) in The Good Fight in the role of an Paramount+ season regular. McDonald has been nominated in three Critics Choice Award awards. The actress is a featured appearance in the HBO series The Gilded Age by Julian Fellowes.