Name
Viola Davis
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1965-08-11 (61 years old)
Place of Birth
St. Matthews, South Carolina, USA
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
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- 2009 Doubt: Stage to Screen as Self
- 2002 Solaris as Gordon
- Soon Operation Othello as Narrator
- 2005 Get Rich or Die Tryin' as Grandma
- 2006 World Trade Center as Mother in Hospital
- 2002 Far from Heaven as Sybil
- 2006 Jesse Stone: Death in Paradise as Molly Crane
- 2009 Law Abiding Citizen as Mayor April Henry
- 2005 Stone Cold as Molly Crane
- 2006 Jesse Stone: Night Passage as Officer Molly Crane
- 2007 Disturbia as Detective Parker
- 1998 The Pentagon Wars as Sgt. Fanning
- 2008 Nights in Rodanthe as Jean
- 2008 Doubt as Mrs. Miller
- 2009 Madea Goes to Jail as Ellen
- 2010 Knight and Day as CIA Director Isabel George
- 2010 Eat Pray Love as Delia Shiraz
- 2010 Trust as Gail Friedman
- 2009 State of Play as Dr. Judith Franklin
- 2001 The Shrink Is In as Robin
- 2013 Ender's Game as Major Gwen Anderson
- 2011 The Help as Aibileen Clark
- Soon Two Butterflies
- 2012 Won't Back Down as Nona Alberts
- 2019 On Broadway as Self (archive footage)
- 2013 Love, Marilyn as Self
- 2001 Amy & Isabelle as Dottie
- 2013 Beautiful Creatures as Amma Treadeau
- 2013 Prisoners as Nancy Birch
- 2022 Oprah + Viola: A Netflix Special Event as Self
- 2014 The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them as Professor Lillian Friedman
- Soon I Almost Forgot About You as Dr. Georgia Young
- 2015 Blackhat as Carol Barrett
- 1996 The Substance of Fire as Nurse
- 2014 Get On Up as Susie Brown
- 2023 Air as Deloris Jordan
- 2014 The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her as Professor Lillian Friedman
- 2011 Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close as Abby Black
- 2014 The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him as Professor Lillian Friedman
- 2022 Black Adam as Amanda Waller (uncredited)
- 2023 The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes as Dr. Volumnia Gaul
- 2024 Kung Fu Panda 4 as The Chameleon (voice)
- 2016 Suicide Squad as Amanda Waller
- 2015 Lila & Eve as Lila Walcott
- 2025 G20 as President Danielle Sutton
- 2006 The Architect as Tonya Neely
- 2024 Predator or Prey: Making The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes as Self
- 2010 It's Kind of a Funny Story as Eden Minerva
- 1998 Miss Apprehension and Squirt as Sharon Hughes
- 2001 Ocean's Eleven as Parole Board Interrogator (voice) (uncredited)
- 2020 Giving Voice as Self
- 2007 Jesse Stone: Sea Change as Molly Crane
- 2016 Custody as Martha Schulman
- 2016 Fences as Rose Maxson
- 2001 Kate & Leopold as Policewoman
- 2015 August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand as Self
- 1998 Out of Sight as Moselle
- 2002 Antwone Fisher as Eva May
- 2000 Traffic as Social Worker
- Soon Small Great Things
- Soon The Personal History of Rachel DuPree as Rachel Dupree
- 2005 Syriana as CIA Chairwoman
- 2018 Widows as Veronica Rawlings
- 2019 Troop Zero as Miss Rayleen
- 2009 Beyond All Boundaries as Hortense Johnson
- 2018 Beyond Boundaries: The Harvey Weinstein Scandal as Self (archive footage)
- 2006 The Best of The Tony Awards: The Plays as Tonya (segment "King Hedley II")
- 2021 The Suicide Squad as Amanda Waller
- 2006 Life Is Not a Fairytale: The Fantasia Barrino Story as Diane Barrino
- 2020 Ma Rainey's Black Bottom as Ma Rainey
- 2021 The Unforgivable as Liz Ingram
- 2019 Live in Front of a Studio Audience: "All in the Family" and "Good Times" as Florida Evans
- 2019 A Touch of Sugar as Narrator
- 2022 The Woman King as Nanisca
- 1998 Grace & Glorie as Rosemary Allbright
- 2027 Children of Blood and Bone as Mama Agba
- 2025 The Ebony Canal: A Story of Black Infant Mortality as Narration
- Soon Ally Clark as Ally Clark
- Soon House of Games
- 2022 Food 2050 as Self - Narrator (voice)
- 2026 W.E.B. Du Bois: Rebel With a Cause as Narrator (voice)
- 2011 Dark Girls as Self
- 2026 Portrait of an Artist: Stephen Curry as Self
- 1999 Third Watch ( 1 episode ) as Margo Rodriguez
- 2000 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation ( 1 episode ) as Attorney Campbell
- 2005 Threshold ( 1 episode )
- 2001 The Division ( 1 episode ) as Dr. Georgia Davis
- 1999 Providence ( 1 episode ) as Dr. Eleanor Weiss
- 1999 Judging Amy ( 1 episode ) as Celeste
- 2007 Traveler ( 8 episodes ) as Agent Jan Marlow
- 2002 Without a Trace ( 1 episode ) as Audrey Williams
- 1993 NYPD Blue ( 1 episode ) as Woman
- 1997 The Practice ( 1 episode ) as Aisha Crenshaw
- 1968 60 Minutes ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 2004 Century City ( 9 episodes ) as Hannah Crane
- 2015 The Late Show with Stephen Colbert ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1951 Hallmark Hall of Fame ( 1 episode ) as Rosemary Allbright
- 2009 United States of Tara ( 1 episode )
- 2001 Law & Order: Criminal Intent ( 1 episode ) as Terry Randolph
- 2000 City of Angels ( 25 episodes ) as Lynnette Peeler
- 2008 The Andromeda Strain ( 2 episodes ) as Dr. Charlene Barton
- 2002 Live from E! ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1953 The Oscars ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 2014 How to Get Away with Murder ( 90 episodes ) as Annalise Keating
- 2021 C ce soir ( 1 episode ) as Self - Guest
- 2006 Brothers and Sisters ( 1 episode ) as Ellen Snyder
- 2003 Jimmy Kimmel Live! ( 2 episodes ) as Self
- 2022 Peacemaker ( 2 episodes ) as Amanda Waller (uncredited)
- 2020 Dear... ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 2015 The Late Show with Stephen Colbert ( 1 episode ) as Self - Guest
- 1997 The View ( 2 episodes ) as Self - Guest
- 2014 The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 2022 The Jennifer Hudson Show ( 3 episodes ) as Self
- 2015 Close Up with The Hollywood Reporter ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 2014 Variety Studio: Actors on Actors ( 4 episodes ) as Self
- 1997 The View ( 2 episodes ) as Self
- 2009 Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen ( 1 episode ) as Self - Guest
- 2012 Scandal ( 1 episode ) as Annalise Keating
- 2015 Hot Ones ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 2014 The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon ( 4 episodes ) as Self - Guest
- 2002 Hack ( 1 episode ) as Stevie Morgan
- 1999 Law & Order: Special Victims Unit ( 7 episodes ) as Donna Emmett
- 2020 Celebrity IOU ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 2022 The First Lady ( 10 episodes ) as Michelle Obama
- 2007 The Graham Norton Show ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1979 CBS News Sunday Morning ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 2024 Creature Commandos ( 4 episodes ) as Amanda Waller (voice)
- 2013 Sofia the First ( 1 episode ) as Helen Hanshaw (voice)
- 2025 Number One on the Call Sheet ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 2019 The Kelly Clarkson Show ( 2 episodes ) as Self
- 2024 Hot Ones Versus ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1959 The Grammys ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1944 Golden Globe Awards ( 1 episode ) as Self - Presenter
- 1944 Golden Globe Awards ( 1 episode ) as Self - Nominee
- 2001 The Guardian ( 1 episode ) as Suzanna Clemons' Attorney
- 1989 The Simpsons ( 1 episode ) as Narrator (voice)
- 2014 Late Night with Seth Meyers ( 1 episode ) as Self - Guest
- 2003 The Ellen DeGeneres Show ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1992 The Tonight Show with Jay Leno ( 1 episode ) as Self - Guest
- 2003 Jimmy Kimmel Live! ( 3 episodes ) as Self - Guest
- 1995 The Actor Awards Presented by SAG-AFTRA ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1956 Tony Awards ( 1 episode ) as Self - Presenter
- 2024 Hollywood Black ( 4 episodes ) as Self (archive footage)
- 2025 Good Hang with Amy Poehler ( 1 episode ) as Self - Guest
- Soon Ascent ( 1 episode ) as Catriona Vail
- 1996 Access Hollywood ( 1 episode ) as Self
