Audra Mc Donald

Audra Mcdonald is a standout in the breadth of her talent and versatility in her roles as a performer and singer. As the winner of an unprecedented seven Tony Awards (two Grammy Awards) and an Emmy Award, McDonald was included in Time magazine's list of 100 people who are influential in the year 2015. She also received President Barack Obama's National Medal of Arts for her work. With a stunning soprano and an incomparable gift for dramatic truth-telling She is equally comfortable in Broadway and the opera on stage as she is in film and television roles. She is a renowned performer in concert and recording, appearing regularly at some of the most prestigious venues around the globe. McDonald was raised at Fresno California by her musical parents. She studied classical music at the Juilliard School, New York. After graduating, she won the very first Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in the Musical Carousel at Lincoln Center Theater (1994). Following four years of being in the Broadway premieres of Master Class by Terrence M. McNally (1996) and Ragtime (1998) in 1998, she won two additional Tony Awards. In 2004, she took home her fourth Tony acting alongside Sean Diddy Combs in A Raisin in the Sun and in 2012 she received her fifth--and her first in the lead actress category in the role of her lead for her role in The Gershwins Porgy and Bess. She made Broadway history as she became the highest famous Tony Award winner. The role she played as Billie Holiday at Emerson's Bar & Grill as well as the role that also helped launch her Olivier Award nominated debut on London's West End in 2017, was the reason she received six awards. Not only did she set records for the highest number of wins in an award-giving category by an actor, she also became the first person ever to be awarded in the four acting categories. McDonald's other theater credits includes The Secret Garden (1993) Marie Christine (1999) Henry IV (2004) 110 in the Shade (2007) Twelfth Night (2009) in which she made 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's first role as a dramatic TV actor was with the Peabody Award-winning CBS program Having Our Say The Delany Sisters' Early 100 Years. In 1999, she co-starred with Kathy Bates in ABC's acclaimed remake of Annie. She also had a recurring part in NBC's Law & Order Special Victims Unit in the year 2000. McDonald's first Emmy was awarded for her performance in the HBO movie adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit. Produced by Mike Nichols with Emma Thompson in the leading role the actress returned to television networks in 2003. The actress starred on Mister Sterling and produced by Emmy Award Winner Lawrence O'Donnell Jr. In 2006, she joined WB's The Bedford Diaries. The next year, she appeared as an actor in NBC's Kidnapped. McDonald won a 4th Emmy for her performance as Lady Day in Emerson's Bar & Grill, which aired on HBO in 2016. The Bite was a six episode pandemic themed drama produced by Spectrum Originals in collaboration with CBS Studios. McDonald, who first appeared in the CBS Legal drama The Good Wife as U.S. attorneys Liz Lawrence and Liz Reddick between 2009 and 2018, reprised these role (now named Liz Reddick) in The Good Fight in the role of the Paramount+ season regular. McDonald received nominations to win Three Critics Choice Award awards. In the present, she is guest on Julian Fellowes' historic comedy The Gilded Age.