Audra Mc Donald

Audra McDonald is unparalleled in her range and the versatility of her talent as an actress and a performer. She was the recipient of record-breaking seven Tony Awards two Grammy Awards and the Emmy Award in 2015 she was ranked among Time magazine's top 100 influential people. She also received the National Medal of Arts, America's highest award for accomplishment in the field--from President Barack Obama. A luminous singer with an unparalleled talent for dramatic truth telling, Ms. O'Connor is at ease performing on Broadway in addition to the opera stage and in the world of television. Aside from her theater work, McDonald also has a thriving profession as a music and concert performer. McDonald was born in Fresno California, where she was raised by a family of musicians. At the Juilliard School in New York City, McDonald received training as a classical singer. A year after graduating she received the first Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured actress in an Musical for Carousel at Lincoln Center Theater (1994). Following four years of acting in Broadway's most acclaimed productions, Master Class by Terrence M. McNally (1996) in addition to Ragtime (1998) in 1998, she was awarded two more Tony Awards. She won her 4th Tony for her role in the musical that she portrayed alongside Sean Diddy Combs in A Raisin in the Sun. Then in 2012, when she was the lead actor for the role of Porgy and Bess in The Gershwins Porgy and Bess she won five Tony and was awarded the first prize in the lead actor category. As the Tony Awards' most decorated performer, she had the chance to create Broadway historical records when she won her sixth Tony Award playing Billie Holiday as Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill. This part also gave her the opportunity for the Olivier Award nominee 2017 London West End debut. Also, she set the record for the most awards won by a single actor. Her other credits for theater include The Secret Garden (1993) Marie Christine (1999) Henry IV (2004) 110 in the Shade (2007) Twelfth Night (2009) in which she made her Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park debut Shuffle Along or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921, and all That Followed (2016) Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (2019) as well as Ohio State Murders (2023). McDonald made her television debut with the award-winning Peabody Award-winning CBS series Having Our Say - The Delany Sisters's First 100 Years. Her next appearance was that of a character actor on NBC's Law & Order Special Victims Unit where she appeared with Kathy Bates and Victor Garber. McDonald was awarded her first Emmy for her role as a character in her role in the HBO remake of the Pulitzer Prize winning play Wit written by Mike Nichols, starring Emma Thompson. In 2003, she returned to television but this time on Mister Sterling produced by Emmy Award winner Lawrence O'Donnell Jr., with Josh Brolin. The Bedford Diaries, a WB television series that debuted in the year 2006. She then had an recurring role on NBC's Kidnapped during the following year. In the year 2016, McDonald was nominated for an additional Emmy Awards for her performance as a character in HBO's Lady Day at Emerson's Bar Restaurant & Grill, a movie-special. McDonald starred along with Taylor Schilling and Steven Pasquale in The Bite a six-episode pandemic-themed drama produced by Spectrum Originals and CBS Studios in 2021. McDonald was first seen in the CBS Legal drama The Good Wife as U.S. attorneys Liz Lawrence and Liz Reddick from 2009 until 2018, reprised these characters (now called Liz Reddick) in The Good Fight in the role of an Paramount+ season regular. McDonald has been nominated for three Critics Choice Award awards. Presently, she is a guest star in Julian Fellowes' historical drama The Gilded Age, which airs on HBO.