Audra Mc Donald

Audra Mcdonald is unique in the breadth of her talent and versatility as an actor and singer. In 2015, she was awarded a record breaking 6 Tony Awards as well as two Grammy Awards and Emmy Awards. The actress was also identified by Time magazine among the 100 most influential individuals and given an award called the National Medal of Arts - the top prize in America in recognition of artistic excellence - from President Barack Obama. Blessed with a luminous soprano and an incomparable gift of telling the truth in a dramatic manner her voice is as at ease on Broadway and on the opera scene as she is in her role in television and film. Aside from her theater work McDonald has also an impressive career as an international recording and concert artist. A musically inclined family, McDonald was raised within Fresno California and received her classical vocal training at New York's Juilliard School. In 1994, a year after her Juilliard School, McDonald won the Tony Award for "Best Performance by a Leading Actress in the Musical" for her performance in Carousel. In the subsequent four years, she also was awarded two Tony Awards under the featured actress category. These were in recognition of her Broadway productions of Terrence McGally's play Master Class and Ragtime. In 2004, she received her fourth Tony acting alongside Sean Diddy Combs in A Raisin in the Sun and in 2012 she won the fifth time and first time for the category of leading actress for her performance as the title character as the title character in The Gershwins Porgy and Bess. As the Tony Awards' most decorated performer, she was able to set Broadway history when she received her sixth Tony Award for playing Billie Holiday as Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill. This role also provided the platform to make the Olivier Award nominee 2017 London West End debut. As well as recording the record for the highest number of performances that an actor has won in a competition she was also the first to win honors across all four categories. Her credits in the theatre include The Secret Garden (1993) Marie Christine (993) Henry IV (2004) and 110 in the Shade (707). Twelfth, Night was McDonald's Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park debut. Shuffle Along is the Making of the Musical Seduction of 1921-and All That Followed. Frankie Johnny in the Clair de Lune. and Ohio State Murders. It was the Peabody Award-winning CBS show Having Our Say The Delany Sisters First 100 Years that first introduced McDonald to the television audience for her performance as a dramatic actor. The year 1999 saw her starred along with Kathy Bates in ABC's acclaimed remake of Annie. She also had an occasional role in NBC's Law & Order Special Victims Unit in 2000. McDonald was awarded her debut Emmy for her performance in the HBO version of the Pulitzer Prize winning play Wit directed by Mike Nichols, starring Emma Thompson. In 2003 she was back on the screen, this time with Mister Sterling produced by Emmy Award-winner Lawrence O'Donnell Jr., which starred Josh Brolin. The Bedford Diaries on the WB at the beginning of 2006, and Kidnapped, NBC. McDonald's role in HBO production Lady Day At Emerson Bar & Grill received her four times an Emmy nomination in 2016. She starred alongside 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 has a brief appearance in The Good Wife, a CBS show The Good Wife as a legal actress The Good Wife as U.S. attorneys Liz Lawrence and Liz Reddick from 2009 until 2018, reprised these roles (now called Liz Reddick) in The Good Fight in the role of the Paramount+ season regular. McDonald was nominated to win Three Critics Choice Award awards. The actress is a featured guest for HBO's The Gilded Age by Julian Fellowes.