Audra Mc Donald

Audra is a unique artist in terms of the range and range of her skills as a performer and song writer. The winner of a record-breaking six Tony Awards two Grammy Awards and the Emmy Award in 2015 she was selected as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people. She also received the National Medal of Art, which is America's highest honor for achievement in the arts--from the president Barack Obama. She's equally comfortable on television, film as well as Broadway. Her stunning soprano is a perfect fit for the stage. Alongside the stage roles, McDonald has built a career that is a major performance and recording career. She frequently performs in top places. McDonald grew in Fresno California, where she was raised by a family full of musicians. At the Juilliard School in New York City, McDonald received training as a classical singer. A year after graduating McDonald won her Tony Award Best Performance for the Lead Actress of a Musical for her performance in Carousel for Lincoln Center Theater. In the four following years, she received two more Tony Awards as a featured actor for her performances in Terrence Mcnally's Broadway debuts Master Class (1996) and Ragtime (1998). Her total of Tony Awards is unprecedented at three prior to the age of 30. In 2004, she won her fourth Tony when she starred as a lead in A Raisin in the Sun alongside Sean Diddy Combs. Then in 2013, she brought home her 5th Tony as well as her first in the leading actress category. In 2014, she created Broadway history by becoming one of the Tony Awards most decorated performer when she won the sixth Tony Award 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 2017 debut in London's West End. In addition to making history with the most performances that an actor has won in a competition as well as becoming the first to win honors in all four acting categories. Her other credits for theater includes The Secret Garden (1993) Marie Christine (1999) Henry IV (2004) 110 in the Shade (2007) Twelfth Night (2009) which marked the release of her Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park debut Shuffle Along or The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed (2016) Frankie and Johnny in Clair de Lune (2019) as well as Ohio State Murders (2023). McDonald was introduced to the television audience as a dramatic actress by Peabody Award winning CBS's Having Our Say the Delany Sisters first 100 years. After that, in 1999, she co-starred with Kathy Bates and Victor Garber on the Disney/ABC television version of Annie. In 2000, she appeared as a recurring on NBC's popular show Law & Order Special Victims Unit. McDonald's Emmy-nominated performance of Emma Thompson in Mike Nichols' HBO film adaptation of Pulitzer Prize winner Wit was produced by Mike Nichols. McDonald's return to network television was in 2003, when she starred with Josh Brolin in Mister Sterling. Then, in the year 2006, she joined WB's The Bedford Diaries. The following year, she became an actor in NBC's Kidnapped. McDonald was nominated for a fourth Emmy in the year 2016 for her performance in HBO's production in the series Lady Day, at Emerson's Bar and Grill. She also appeared in 2021 when she was a co-star with Taylor Schilling and Steven Pasquale as part of The Bite, a pandemic drama that was co-produced between Spectrum Originals and CBS Studios. McDonald appeared as U.S. prosecutor Liz Lawrence, a character she first was seen in the CBS drama The Good Wife legal drama in 2009. It was her turn to reprise the role in 2018, as Season main character Liz Reddick in Paramount+'s The Good Fight. For her performance, McDonald received three Critics Choice Award nominated. McDonald guest-stars on Julian Fellowes historical drama The Gilded Age.