Audra Mc Donald

Audra's versatility and breadth as a performer is second to none. Audra has received seven Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards and one Emmy Award. Audra McDonald who has won six Tony Awards in a row and two Grammy Awards in 2015 was recognized as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people. President Barack Obama also awarded her the National Medal of Arts -- America's highest honour to recognize achievements in the field. An enthralling singer who has an unparalleled talent for emotional truth-telling, Ms. O'Connor can be found performing on Broadway in addition to the stage of opera and on TV. Alongside her theatrical work she maintains a major career as a recording artist regularly appearing at the world's foremost venues. McDonald was born into a musically inclined family in Fresno, California. She underwent classical vocal training from The Juilliard School of New York. She was awarded her initial Tony Award in 1994 for the most outstanding performance by the Featured Actress in a musical for Carousel in the Lincoln Center Theater. Over the next four years, she took home two more Tony Awards for the category of a featured actress. She performed in the Broadway premieres Terrence McNally's musical Ragtime as well as Terrence McNally's production of Master Class in 1996. The result was an astonishing number of Tony Awards by the time she reached the age of 30. In 2004 she won her fourth Tony starring alongside Sean Diddy Combs in A Raisin in the Sun and in 2012, she took home the fifth time and first time for the category of leading actress for her performance as the title character for her role in The Gershwins Porgy and Bess. The year 2014 saw her make Broadway history, becoming an official Tony Awards most decorated performer in the sixth Tony Award in the role of Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill the role that also served as the stage for her Olivier Award-nominated 2017 debut in London's West End. In addition to recording the record for the highest number of competitive wins by an actor she also became the first to win honors for all four categories of acting. Her theater credits include The Secret Garden (1993) Marie Christine (99) Henry IV (2007) 110 in the Shade (2008) Twelfth (2009), which was her Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park premiere Shuffle Along or The Making of the Musical sensation of 1921 & All That Followed (2017) Frankie and Johnny in Clair de Lune (2018) as well as Ohio State Murders 2023. McDonald's first appearance as a dramatic actor on television was with the Peabody Award-winning CBS show Having Our Say The Delany Sisters' Early 100 Years. The actress then starred with Kathy Bates and Victor Garber in the critically acclaimed 1999 remake by ABC and Disney of Annie and, in 2000, played a regular role in NBC's smash series Law & Order Special Victims Unit. The following year, she received her first Emmy award for her performance in the HBO film version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Wit directed by Mike Nichols and starring Emma Thompson McDonald returned on television network in 2003 with the political drama Mister Sterling, produced by Emmy Award winner Lawrence O'Donnell Jr. and featuring Josh Brolin. Beginning in 2006, she was part of The Bedford Diaries' cast on show on WB called The Bedford Diaries and over the next season she had an recurring role in the NBC television show Kidnapped. McDonald won a 4th Emmy for her role as Lady Day in Emerson's Bar & Grill on HBO in the year 2016. The actress starred with Taylor Schilling and Steven Pasquale in The Bite a six-episode pandemic-themed drama co-produced through Spectrum Originals and CBS Studios in 2021. McDonald was first seen as U.S. lawyer Liz Lawrence (now Liz Reddick), in CBS's legal drama The Good Wife, in the year 2009. In 2018, she recast her role on The Good Fight for Paramount+ as a regular on the series. Her performance received three Critics Choice Award Nominations. McDonald guest-stars in Julian Fellowes historical drama The Gilded Age.