Viola Davis
Viola Davis (/vaɪˈoʊl.ə/; born August 11, 1965) is an American actress and film producer. Known for her work across screen and stage, she has received numerous accolades and is one of three artists to achieve both the Triple Crown of Acting and the EGOT.[a] Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2012 and 2017.[1][2] In 2020, The New York Times ranked her ninth on its list of the greatest actors of the 21st century.[3][4]
For other people named Viola Davis, see Viola Davis (disambiguation).
Viola Davis
August 11, 1965
- Actress
- producer
1988–present
1
Mike Colter (second cousin)
A graduate of Juilliard, Davis began her career in Central Falls, Rhode Island, appearing in small stage productions, before expanding to screen with minor roles in film and television during the late 1990s and early 2000s. She won two Tony Awards—Best Featured Actress in a Play and Best Actress in a Play—for the respective roles of Tonya in the 2001 Broadway production of August Wilson's King Hedley II (2001) and Rose Maxson in the Broadway revival of August Wilson's play Fences (2010).[5]
The drama Doubt (2008) earned Davis her first Academy Award nomination. She received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing a 1960s housemaid in The Help (2011) and Ma Rainey in the biopic Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020). She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for reprising her role in the 2016 film adaptation of Fences. Her role as lawyer Annalise Keating in the ABC drama series How to Get Away with Murder (2014–2020) won her the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, making her the first black actress to do so.[b] Davis is also recognized for appearing in big budget blockbusters, playing Amanda Waller in the DC Extended Universe, beginning with Suicide Squad (2016), and leading the historical action film The Woman King (2022).
Davis and her husband are founders of the production company JuVee Productions, and she is also widely recognized for her advocacy and support for human rights and women of color. She became a L'Oréal Paris ambassador in 2019. The audiobook narration of her 2022 memoir Finding Me won her the Grammy Award for Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording.
Early life and education[edit]
Davis was born on August 11, 1965, in St. Matthews, South Carolina,[6] to Mae Alice Davis (née Logan) and Dan Davis.[7][8][9] She was born on her grandmother's farm on the Singleton Plantation.[10] Her father was a horse trainer, and her mother was a maid, factory worker and homemaker.[11][12][13] She is the second youngest of six children, having four sisters and a brother.[14] Soon after she was born, her parents moved with Davis and two of her older siblings to Central Falls, Rhode Island, leaving her other siblings with her grandparents.[9]
Her mother was also an activist during the Civil Rights Movement.[13] When she was two years old, Davis was taken to jail with her mother after she was arrested during a civil rights protest.[15] She has described herself as having "lived in abject poverty and dysfunction" during her childhood,[16] recalling living in "rat-infested and condemned" apartments.[17] Davis is a second cousin of actor Mike Colter, known for portraying the Marvel Comics character Luke Cage.[18]
Davis attended Central Falls High School, the alma mater to which she partially credits her love of stage acting with her involvement in the arts.[19] As a teenager, she was involved in the federal TRIO Upward Bound and TRIO Student Support Services programs.[20] While enrolled at the Young People's School for the Performing Arts in West Warwick, Rhode Island, Davis's talent was recognized by a director at the program, Bernard Masterson.[21]
After graduating from high school, Davis studied at Rhode Island College, majoring in theater and participating in the National Student Exchange before graduating in 1988. Next, she attended the Juilliard School for four years,[12][13] and was a member of the school's Drama Division "Group 22" (1989–93).[22]
Career[edit]
Early work and breakthrough on stage (1992–1999)[edit]
In 1992, Davis starred in her first professional stage role, an off Broadway production of William Shakespeare's comedy As You Like It as Denis alongside Elizabeth McGovern at the Delacorte Theatre. In 1996, Davis made her Broadway debut in the original Broadway production of August Wilson's Seven Guitars as the Vera, alongside Keith David. The play opened on Broadway on March 6 at the Walter Kerr Theatre. She earned critical praise for her performance.[23][24] That same year, Davis received her Screen Actors Guild card in 1996 for doing one day of work, playing a nurse who passes a vial of blood to future How to Get Away with Murder co-star Timothy Hutton in the film The Substance of Fire (1996). She was paid $518.[25] Davis continued acting off Broadway in various productions, and appeared in bit parts on television including episodes of NYPD Blue (1996), and New York Undercover (1996). She also appeared in the HBO television military comedy film, The Pentagon Wars (1996) starring Kelsey Grammer, and Cary Elwes. In 1998, she played a small role in Steven Soderbergh's crime comedy film Out of Sight (1999).
Film breakthrough and further stage success (2000–2010)[edit]
In 2001, she returned to the Broadway stage in another play by August Wilson titled King Hedley II, portraying Tonya, a "35-year-old mother fighting eloquently for the right to abort a pregnancy." Her performance earned critical attention, and she received her first Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play and a Drama Desk Award.[26] She won another Drama Desk Award for her work in a 2004 off-Broadway production of Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage.
Throughout the early 2000s Davis appeared in numerous films, including Soderbergh's Solaris and Traffic, as well as George Clooney's Syriana (2005), which Soderbergh produced. Hers was the uncredited voice of the parole board interrogator who questions Danny Ocean (Clooney) in the first scene in Ocean's Eleven (2001).[27] She also gave brief performances in the romantic comedy Kate & Leopold (2001) and the drama Antwone Fisher (2002). She also played secondary roles in Todd Haynes' costume drama Far From Heaven (2002), starring Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid. Her television work includes a recurring role in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,[28] starring roles in two short-lived series, Traveler and Century City,[29] and a special guest appearance in a Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode entitled "Badge".[30]
In 2005 and 2006, Davis began a recurring role opposite Tom Selleck in a series of films made for television based on novels by Robert B. Parker, Jesse Stone: Stone Cold, Jesse Stone: Night Passage and Jesse Stone: Death in Paradise.
Philanthropy and activism[edit]
In 2011, Davis donated funds to her hometown public library in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to assist in preventing its closure due to a lack of city funding.[101] In 2018, Davis donated funds to her alma mater, Central Falls High School, for its theater program.[102][103][104]
Since 2014, Davis has collaborated with the Hunger Is campaign to help eradicate childhood hunger across America.[105] Speaking on her work, Davis said that "seventeen million kids in this country, so one in five kids in this country, go to bed hungry. I was one of those kids, because I grew up in abject poverty; I did everything that you could possibly imagine to get food: I rummaged in the garbage cans, I stole from the local store constantly."[106] As an honoree at the 2014 Variety Power of Women luncheon, Davis further commented that "the thing that made me join...was the word 'eradicate', 'get rid of' – not by thirty-percent not by twenty-percent not by fifty-percent, but to do away [with it]. Because everyone should be a child, and should grow up and have a chance at the American dream".[107] In September 2017, Davis started the $30K in 30 Days Project with Hunger Is, awarding a $1,000 grant to the Rhode Island Community food bank in her home state.[105]
As part of her partnership with Vaseline to promote the Vaseline Healing Project, Davis attended the groundbreaking of a free community health center in Central Falls, Rhode Island in October 2016 that was sponsored by the project.[103] The project provides dermatological care to help heal the skin of those affected by poverty around the world.[108][109][110] She was also a speaker at the 2018 Women's March event in Los Angeles.[111]
On New Year's Eve 2020, Davis urged Georgia voters who voted via mail or dropbox to track their ballots to ensure their votes count, directing them to VoteRiders for information and help to cure ballots that were not accepted.[112]
Personal life[edit]
Davis married actor Julius Tennon in June 2003.[113] In 2011, the couple adopted an infant daughter named Genesis. Davis is also a stepmother to Tennon's two children from previous relationships.[114]
Davis is a Christian and regularly attends services at Oasis Church in Los Angeles.[115][116]
For her stage work, Davis has won two Tony Awards, three Drama Desk Awards, an Obie Award, and a Theater World Award. She holds the distinction of becoming the first actress of color to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Davis is the first African-American to win five Screen Actors Guild Awards.[117] Davis is also tied for the most film wins for an actress at the Screen Actors Guild Awards; and with six overall wins, she is the most awarded African American.[118] She has also received nominations for six Golden Globes Awards and three British Academy Film Awards, winning one of each, in addition to winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Fences (2016). This led to her becoming the first black performer to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting by winning a competitive Oscar, Emmy and Tony.[119] She is also the first actress of color to have received four Academy Award nominations.[120] Davis was awarded an honorary doctorate in Fine Arts from her undergraduate alma mater, Rhode Island College, in 2002.[121] On January 20, 2020, Davis was awarded an honorary doctoral degree in fine arts from Indiana University.[122] In February 2023, she was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording for the narration to her 2022 autobiography Finding Me, making her the 18th person to achieve EGOT status.[123]
Davis has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) for the following films: