Viola Davis
Viola Davis
Biography
Viola Davis (/vaɪˈoʊlə/ vy-OH-lə; born August 11, 1965) is an American actress and film producer. Her accolades include both the Triple Crown of Acting and EGOT. Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2012 and 2017. The New York Times ranked her ninth on its list of the greatest actors of the 21st century (2020). Davis received the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2025. A graduate of Juilliard, Davis began her career in Central Falls, Rhode Island, appearing in small stage productions. She made her Broadway debut in the August Wilson play Seven Guitars (1996) for which she earned her first Tony nomination. She would later win two Tony Awards, both for Wilson plays. Her first win was for Best Featured Actress in a Play playing the titular character Tonya, a woman grappling with trauma and loss in King Hedley II (2001), followed by her second win for Best Actress in a Play playing Rose Maxson, a working class mother in Fences (2010). She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for reprising her role in the 2016 film adaptation of Fences. She was Oscar-nominated for playing a complex mother in Doubt (2008), a 1960s housemaid in The Help (2011) and Ma Rainey in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020). On television, she became the first black actress to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role as lawyer Annalise Keating in the ABC legal drama series How to Get Away with Murder (2014–2020). Davis joined the DCEU playing Amanda Waller starting with Suicide Squad (2016). She has also starred in the crime drama Widows(2018), and 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. Description above from the Wikipedia article Viola Davis, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
Actor
as Narrator
as Dr. Georgia Young
as Rachel Dupree
as Amanda Waller
as Mama Agba
as Danielle Sutton
as The Chameleon (voice)
as Self (Dr. Volumnia Gaul)
as Amanda Waller (voice)
as Dr. Volumnia Gaul
as Deloris Jordan
as Amanda Waller (uncredited)
as Nanisca
as Self
as Michelle Obama
as Amanda Waller (uncredited)
as Liz Ingram
as Amanda Waller
as Self (archive footage)
as Self - Guest
as Ma Rainey
as Self
as Self
as Self
as Self (archive footage)
as Narrator
as Miss Rayleen
as Veronica Rawlings
as Self (archive footage)
as Rose Maxson
as Amanda Waller
as Martha Schulman
as Lila Walcott
as Carol Barrett
as Self - Guest
as Self
as Professor Lillian Friedman
as Professor Lillian Friedman
as Susie Brown
as Professor Lillian Friedman
as Self
as Annalise Keating
as Self - Guest
as Major Gwen Anderson
as Nancy Birch
as Self
as Amma Treadeau
as Helen Hanshaw (voice)
as Nona Alberts
as Annalise Keating
as Dr. Volumnia Gaul (archive footage)
as Abby Black
as The Vengeful Caretaker
as Aibileen Clark
as Dr. Eden Minerva
as Gail Friedman
as Delia Shiraz
as CIA Director Isabel George
as Hortense Johnson
as Mayor April Henry
as Dr. Judith Franklin
as Self
as Ellen
as Self - Guest
as Mrs. Miller
as Jean
as Dr. Charlene Barton
as Molly Crane
as Detective Parker
as Agent Jan Marlow
as Self
as Tonya Neely
as Diane Barrino
as Mother in Hospital with Donna
as Tonya (segment "King Hedley II")
as Molly Crane
as Officer Molly Crane
as Ellen Snyder
as CIA Chairwoman
as Grandma
as Molly Crane
as Self
as Eva May
as Gordon
as Sybil
as Stevie Morgan
as Audrey Williams
as Self
as Policewoman
as Parole Board Interrogator (voice) (uncredited)
as Robin
as Dottie
as Sergeant Terry Randolph
as Social Worker
as Attorney Campbell
as Lynnette Peeler
as Margo Rodriguez
as Donna Emmett
as Celeste
as Dr. Eleanor Weiss
as Rosemary Allbright
as Moselle
as Sgt. Fanning
as Sharon Hughes
as Self - Guest
as Self
as Aisha Crenshaw
as Nurse
as Woman
as Self
as Self
as Self - Presenter
as Self
as Rosemary Allbright
Producer
as Executive Producer
as Executive Producer
as Executive Producer
as Producer
as Executive Producer
as Producer
as Executive Producer
as Producer
as Executive Producer
as Executive Producer
as Executive Producer
as Executive Producer
as Producer
Creator
as Creator