Viola Davis
Viola Davis
11.08.1965 (58 years) (Saint Matthews, South Carolina, USA)
Viola Davis (born August 11, 1965) is an American actress and producer. Regarded as one of the greatest actresses of her generation, she was the first black actress to be nominated for three Academy Awards, winning one, and is the only black person to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting (an Oscar, an Emmy, and a Tony).Born in St. Matthews, South Carolina, she began her acting career starring in minor theatre productions. After graduating from the Juilliard School in 1993, Davis began her career on stage and won an Obie Award in 1999 for her performance as Ruby McCollum in Everybody's Ruby. She played supporting and minor roles in several films and television series in the late 1990s and early 2000s, before winning the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her role as Tonya in August Wilson's King Hedley II in 2001. Davis' film breakthrough came in 2008, when her supporting role in the drama Doubt garnered rave reviews and earned several nominations, including the Golden Globe, SAG and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Greater success came to Davis in the 2010s, where she won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her role as Rose Maxson in the revival of August Wilson's play Fences. For her lead role as 1960s housemaid Aibileen Clark in the comedy-drama The Help (2011), Davis received her second Academy Award nomination and first for the Academy Award for Best Actress, and won a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role. Since 2014, Davis has played lawyer Annalise Keating in the ABC television drama How to Get Away with Murder, and in 2015, she became the first black woman to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. Her portrayal also won her two SAG Awards in 2015 and 2016. In 2016, Davis played Amanda Waller in the supervillain action film Suicide Squad and reprised the role of Rose Maxson in the film adaptation of Fences, for which she won the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Critics' Choice Award, SAG Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.Davis and her husband, Julius Tennon, are the founders of the production company JuVee Productions. Davis is also widely regarded for her advocacy and support of the Civil Rights Movement and equal rights for women and women of color, and identifies as a feminist. In 2012 and 2017, she was listed by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.