Audra Mc Donald

Her versatility and range as a performer is second to none. Audra has received seven Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards and one Emmy Award. As the winner of a record-breaking 6 Tony Awards (two Grammy Awards) as well as an Emmy Award, McDonald was included in the Time Magazine's list of 100 most influential people of 2015. She also received President Barack Obama's National Medal of Arts for her achievements. Due to her soprano's luminous tone and unbeatable ability of telling compelling stories, she has found success on Broadway and at the opera, as well as for television and film. Her career has been successful in concert and recording performing regularly in some of the most prestigious venues around the globe. McDonald is from Fresno California, where she was raised by a clan of musicians. At the Juilliard School in New York City, McDonald received training as a classical singer. After graduating, she was awarded her first Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for Carousel at Lincoln Center Theater (1994). In the following four years, she received two additional Tony Awards in the featured actress category for her performance on performances in the Broadway premieres of Terrence McNally's play Master Class (1996) and his Musical Ragtime (1998) which gave her the record-breaking total of three Tony Awards before the age of thirty. In 2004, she won the fourth Tony for her role in the musical in which she was a co-star with Sean Diddy Combs in A Raisin in the Sun. In 2012, while she was the lead actor for the role of Porgy and Bess in The Gershwins Porgy and Bess she earned the fifth Tony and was awarded the first prize in the lead actor category. In 2014, she created Broadway history, becoming one of 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 vehicle for her Olivier Award nominated debut performance on London's West End. Along with setting the record for most wins in a competitive category for an actor, she also became the first person ever to receive awards in the four acting categories. McDonald's other theater credits include The Secret Garden (1993) Marie Christine (1999) Henry IV (2004) 110 in the Shade (2007) Twelfth Night (2009) which marked Twelfth Night (2009), which was her Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park debut, the show Shuffle Along or The Making of the Musical Sensation in 1921 as well as All That Followed (2016) Frankie and Johnny in Clair de Lune (2019) and Ohio State Murders (2023). McDonald's first appearance as a dramatic TV actor was with the Peabody Award-winning CBS show Having Our Say The Delany Sisters' first 100 years. Her next appearance was as a recurring actor on the NBC show Law & Order Special Victims Unit and she appeared with Kathy Bates and Victor Garber. McDonald, who earned the Emmy Award nomination in 1999 for her work on the HBO version of Pulitzer Prize-winning film Wit which was written and performed by Emma Thompson, made her return to the network in 2003 to star in the drama about politics Mister Sterling. The film was written and produced by Emmy Award-winning Lawrence O'Donnell Jr. The Bedford Diaries, a WB television series that debuted in the year 2006. She then had the privilege of playing a regular role in NBC's Kidnapped during the following year. McDonald's role in HBO movie Lady Day At Emerson Bar & Grill received her a four-time Emmy nomination in 2016. The Bite was a six episodes pandemic-themed drama created through Spectrum Originals in collaboration with CBS Studios. McDonald played U.S. prosecutor Liz Lawrence in the first episode of her role appeared on the CBS drama The Good Wife legal drama in the year 2009. It was her turn to reprise the role in the year 2018, playing an episode the regular Liz Reddick in Paramount+'s The Good Fight. For her role, McDonald received three Critics Choice Award nominated. She currently guest-stars in Julian Fellowes' historical thriller The Gilded Age on HBO.