Audra Mc Donald

Audra McDonald is unparalleled in the breadth and versatility of her talent as actor and singer. In 2015, she won an unprecedented six Tony Awards as well as two Grammy Awards and Emmy Awards. She was also named as a result of Time magazine among the 100 most influential individuals and received an award called the National Medal of Arts - the most prestigious prize given in America for artistic achievement by President Barack Obama. She is equally at home in film, television and Broadway. The luminous tone of her voice will make her an ideal performer on the stage. In addition to her stage work, McDonald has built a career that has a substantial recording and concert career. She regularly performs at world-class venues. Born into a musical family McDonald grew up living in Fresno California and received her singing training in the classical style at New York's Juilliard School. In 1994, a year after she graduated from Juilliard School, McDonald was awarded the Tony Award for "Best Performance by a Leading Actress in the Musical" for Carousel. In the four following years, she won two more Tony Awards as a featured actress for her roles on Terrence Mcnally's Broadway debuts Master Class (1996) and Ragtime (1998). Her total of Tony Awards is unprecedented at 3 before the age of 30. In 2004, she was nominated for her fourth Tony Award, starring in A Raisin in the Sun with Sean Diddy Combs. And in 2012, her fifth Tony and first in the Leading Actress category was awarded to her for her portrayal as the titular character in The Gershwins Porgy and Bess. The actress made Broadway history when she became the most decorated Tony Award performer. In her role as Billie Holiday at Emerson's Bar & Grill in the show, which was also the catalyst for her Olivier Award nominated debut on London's West End in 2017, was the reason she received six awards. Along with recording the record for the highest number of competitive wins by an actor as well as becoming the first actor to be awarded honors for all four categories of acting. McDonald also has credits for theatre shows which include The Secret Garden (1993) Marie Christine (1999), Henry IV 2004 110 in the Shade (2006) Twelfth Nigh (2009) The Twelfth Night was her Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park debut show, Shuffle Along Or the Making of the Musical Sense of 1921, and all That Followed (16) Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (192019) as well as Ohio State Murders (2023) McDonald was first introduced to the public via television as a dramatic actress by Peabody Award winning CBS's Having Our Say the Delany Sisters first 100 years. The next time she appeared on television was as a recurring actor in NBC's Law & Order Special Victims Unit, in which she starred alongside Kathy Bates and Victor Garber. McDonald's first Emmy came for the HBO movie version of Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit. The film was directed by Mike Nichols with Emma Thompson in the leading role the actress returned to television networks in 2003. The show she starred in was Mister Sterling and produced by Emmy Award Winner Lawrence O'Donnell Jr. The Bedford Diaries on the WB in the early part of 2006 as well as Kidnapped, NBC. McDonald earned a nomination for a Fourth Emmy in the year 2016 for her performance in HBO's movie called Lady Day, at Emerson's Bar & Grill. The Bite is a drama with six episodes based on the pandemic that was co-produced through Spectrum Originals & CBS Studios. The show featured her with Taylor Schilling & Steven Pasquale. McDonald initially played U.S. lawyer Liz Lawrence (now Liz Reddick), in CBS's legal action thriller The Good Wife, in 2009. In 2018 she reprised her role on The Good Fight for Paramount+ as a regular on the series. Her performance received three Critics Choice Award Nominations. She is also a guest on HBO's The Gilded Age by Julian Fellowes.