Audra Mc Donald

Audra Mcdonald is unique in her breadth of talent and her versatility in her roles as a performer and singer. Audra McDonald, winner of six Tony Awards in a row and two Grammy Awards in 2015 was recognized as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people. The president Barack Obama also awarded her the National Medal of Arts -- America's highest honour for achievements in this field. A luminous soprano and an incomparable gift to tell the truth her voice is as at ease on Broadway as well as on the on stage as she is in TV and film roles. Alongside her theatrical work she maintains a major career as a concert and recording performer who regularly appears at world's foremost venues. McDonald was born in Fresno California, where she was raised by a clan full of musicians. At the Juilliard School in New York City, McDonald received training as a classical singer. One year after graduation McDonald won the Tony Award Best Performance for an Actress in Musical Lead in Carousel in the Lincoln Center Theater. Over the next four years she was awarded two additional Tony Awards for the category of a featured actress. She was in Broadway premier productions of Terrence McNally's musical Ragtime as well as Terrence McNally's show Master Class in 1996. It was an amazing total of three Tony Awards by the time she was thirty. In 2004, she received her 4th Tony when she starred in A Raisin in the Sun along with Sean Diddy Combs. Then in 2013, she took her fifth Tony in addition to her first in the leading actress category. In 2014 she made Broadway history by becoming the Tony Awards most decorated performer after she received the sixth Tony Award for her portrayal of Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill the role which also served as a stage for her Olivier Award-nominated 2017 debut in London's West End. Along with setting the record as the most awards in a competition category for an actor, she also became the first person ever to win awards for the four acting categories. McDonald's credits in theater are 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 on the Clair de Lune. and Ohio State Murders. The Peabody Award-winning CBS show Having Our Say The Delany Sisters The First 100 Years which first introduced McDonald to television audiences for her performance as a dramatic actor. In 1999, she costarred alongside Kathy Bates and Victor Garber in the television adaptation of Disney/ABC of Annie. In 2000, she was an recurring role on the NBC series Law & Order Special Victims Unit. McDonald's Emmy-nominated performance as Emma Thompson on Mike Nichols' HBO film adaptation of Pulitzer Prize winner Wit was directed by Mike Nichols. McDonald's return to television networks began in 2003 when she starred with Josh Brolin in Mister Sterling. The Bedford Diaries on the WB in the early part of 2006 as well as Kidnapped, NBC. McDonald received a fourth Emmy for her performance as Lady Day in Emerson's Bar & Grill on HBO in the year 2016. The Bite was a six episode pandemic themed drama produced through Spectrum Originals in collaboration with CBS Studios. McDonald first played U.S. lawyer Liz Lawrence (now Liz Reddick), in CBS's legal thriller The Good Wife, in 2009. In 2018, she recast that role in 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.