Audra Mc Donald

Audra Mcdonald is a standout in her breadth of talent and versatility as an actor and singer. Audra McDonald, who won Six Tony Awards in a row and two Grammy Awards in 2015 was named as one of Times magazine's 100 Most Influential People. President Barack Obama also awarded her the National Medal of Arts -- America's highest honour for excellence in this area. A luminous singer with an unparalleled talent for emotional truth-telling, Ms. O'Connor is at ease on Broadway in addition to the opera stage and in the world of television. As well as the stage roles, McDonald has established a successful career which is a major performance and recording career. She regularly performs at world-class places. McDonald was born in Fresno California, where she was raised by a clan that included musicians. While at the Juilliard School in New York City, McDonald received training as a classical singer. She was awarded her debut Tony Award in 1994 for the Best Performance of the Featured Actress in a musical, Carousel, at Lincoln Center Theater. Following four years of being in the Broadway premieres of Master Class by Terrence M. McNally (1996) and Ragtime (1998), she was awarded two more Tony Awards. She won her 4th Tony for her role in the musical that she portrayed alongside Sean Diddy Combs in A Raisin in the Sun. When she was in 2012, she was the lead actress in The Gershwins Porgy and Bess she received the fifth Tony and also won her first prize in the lead actor category. In 2014, the Tony Awards most-decorated performer in 2014 was Billie Holiday, who she played as the title character in Lady Day At Emerson's Bar & Grill. It's identical to the role she performed for her 2017 West End London debut for which she has been considered for nomination to an Olivier Award. Along with setting the record as the most awards in a competition area by an actor she also became the first actor to receive awards in the four acting categories. Her other credits for theater are The Secret Garden (1993) Marie Christine (1999) Henry IV (2004) 110 in the Shade (2007) Twelfth Night (2009) that marked her Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park debut 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). McDonald was first introduced to the television audience as a dramatic actress by Peabody Award winning CBS's Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters first 100 years. She went on to co-star alongside Kathy Bates and Victor Garber in the critically acclaimed 1999 Disney/ABC television remake of Annie and, in 2000, was a frequent guest on the NBC's hit show Law & Order Special Victims Unit. McDonald's first Emmy was for the HBO movie version of Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit. Directed by Mike Nichols with Emma Thompson in the leading role, McDonald then returned to network TV in 2003. She starred in Mister Sterling and produced by Emmy Award winner Lawrence O'Donnell Jr. The Bedford Diaries on the WB at the beginning of 2006, and Kidnapped, NBC. McDonald won a 4th Emmy for her role as Lady Day in Emerson's Bar and Grill on HBO in 2016. McDonald starred along with Taylor Schilling and Steven Pasquale in The Bite a six-episode pandemic-themed drama co-produced with Spectrum Originals and CBS Studios in 2021. McDonald appeared as U.S. prosecutor Liz Lawrence, a character she first appeared in CBS's The Good Wife legal drama in 2009. The role was reprised in 2018, as an episode the regular Liz Reddick in Paramount+'s The Good Fight. In recognition of her performance, McDonald received three Critics Choice Award nominated. The actress is a featured guest for HBO's The Gilded Age by Julian Fellowes.