1. Viola Davis is an American actress and film producer.
73 Facts About Viola Davis
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Viola Davis's accolades include both the Triple Crown of Acting and EGOT.
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Viola Davis won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for reprising her role in the 2016 film adaptation of Fences.
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Viola Davis was Oscar-nominated for playing a complex mother in Doubt, a 1960s housemaid in The Help and Ma Rainey in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.
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Viola Davis joined the DCEU playing Amanda Waller starting with Suicide Squad.
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Viola Davis has starred in the crime drama Widows, and historical action film The Woman King.
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Viola Davis was born on her grandmother's farm on the Singleton Plantation.
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Viola Davis's father was a horse trainer, and her mother was a maid, factory worker and homemaker.
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Viola Davis is the second youngest of six children, having four sisters and a brother.
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Viola Davis's mother was an activist during the Civil Rights Movement.
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When she was two years old, Viola Davis was taken to jail with her mother after she was arrested during a civil rights protest.
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Viola Davis has described herself as having "lived in abject poverty and dysfunction" during her childhood, recalling living in "rat-infested and condemned" apartments.
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Viola Davis is a second cousin of actor Mike Colter, known for portraying the Marvel Comics character Luke Cage.
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Viola 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.
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Viola Davis explained that formal technical training she received helped her play classic roles from Shakespeare, Chekov, O'Neill, and Strindberg, but added "what it denies is the human being behind all that, and as a black actress I'm always asked to show range by doing white work".
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In 1992, Viola 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.
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In 1996, Viola Davis made her Broadway debut in the original Broadway production of August Wilson's Seven Guitars as the Vera, alongside Keith David.
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That same year, Viola 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.
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Viola Davis continued acting off Broadway in various productions, and appeared in bit parts on television including episodes of NYPD Blue, and New York Undercover.
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Viola Davis appeared in the HBO television military comedy film, The Pentagon Wars starring Kelsey Grammer, and Cary Elwes.
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Viola Davis won another Drama Desk Award for her work in a 2004 off-Broadway production of Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage.
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Viola Davis played secondary roles in Todd Haynes' costume drama Far From Heaven, starring Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid.
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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.
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In 2008, Viola Davis played Mrs Miller in the film adaptation of the Broadway play by John Patrick Shanley, Doubt, with Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams.
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On June 30,2009, Viola Davis was inducted into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
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In 2010, Viola Davis returned to Broadway in her third August Wilson play, this time a revival of Fences as Rose Maxson, acting alongside Denzel Washington.
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Viola Davis's face is a poignant paradox, both bone-tired and suffused with sensual radiance.
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Viola Davis was the second African-American to win the Tony for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play, after Phylicia Rashad.
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In 2010 Viola Davis had small roles in the romantic comedy thriller Knight and Day starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz and the romantic comedy Eat Pray Love starring Julia Roberts.
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Viola Davis has since expressed deep regret over taking on the role; although she still admires the people she worked with, she does not think the story or portrayal is truthful about the lives of the black characters.
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Viola Davis gained praise for her work and eventually won two Screen Actors Guild Awards, in addition to receiving her second Academy Award nomination, as well as Golden Globe Award and BAFTA Award nominations.
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On June 12,2012, Viola Davis received the Women in Film's Crystal Award.
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In 2014, Viola Davis reunited with The Help director Tate Taylor in Get on Up, a biopic of James Brown, playing Brown's mother.
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In February 2014, Viola Davis was cast in Peter Nowalk's pilot How to Get Away with Murder as the lead character.
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Viola Davis's character, Annalise Keating, is a tough criminal defense attorney and professor who becomes entangled in murder plot with her students.
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In September 2015, Viola Davis became the first African-American to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role on How to Get Away with Murder.
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Viola Davis received a second Primetime Emmy Award nomination for the role in 2016.
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Viola Davis won two Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series in 2014 and 2015.
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In 2015, Viola Davis appeared in Blackhat, a Michael Mann-directed thriller film starring Chris Hemsworth.
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In 2016, Viola Davis starred in the courtroom drama Custody, on which she served as an executive producer, and played Amanda Waller in the film Suicide Squad, an adaptation of a DC Comics series of the same name.
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In 2016, Viola Davis reprised her role as Rose Maxson for the film adaptation of Fences directed by and starring Denzel Washington.
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Viola Davis's performance garnered critical acclaim and she received her third Academy Award nomination, making her the first black actress in history to achieve this feat.
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Viola Davis subsequently went on to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress, the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role, and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.
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In 2017, Viola Davis was presented with the 2,597th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame by her Doubt co-star and friend Meryl Streep.
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Also in 2017, Viola Davis announced that she would write the sequel to the classic picture book Corduroy, titled Corduroy Takes a Bow.
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In 2018, Viola Davis debuted Two-Sides, a documentary series exploring police brutality towards the African-American community.
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Viola Davis starred alongside fellow Shondaland costar Kerry Washington for a special two-hour crossover episode of How to Get Away with Murder and Scandal, aptly titled How to Get Away with Scandal.
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That same year, Viola Davis starred in the Steve McQueen heist thriller Widows alongside Cynthia Erivo, Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Rodriguez, and Liam Neeson.
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Viola Davis received her second British Academy Film Award nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance.
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In 2020, Viola Davis served as an executive producer and appeared in the documentary film Giving Voice, following students entering the August Wilson monologue competition for a chance to compete on Broadway.
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Viola Davis received critical acclaim and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role for her performance, in addition to her sixth Golden Globe Award nomination and her second Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, her fourth nomination overall.
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In 2021, Viola Davis reprised her role as Amanda Waller in the superhero film The Suicide Squad.
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Viola Davis appeared uncredited as Amanda Waller in two episodes, "A Whole New Whirled" and "It's Cow or Never", in season 1 of the show Peacemaker, a spin-off of The Suicide Squad, and in the film, Black Adam.
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Viola Davis executive produced and played former First Lady Michelle Obama in The First Lady, a Showtime drama series.
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Viola Davis was the narrator at Disney's Candlelight Processional at Disneyland in 2022.
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In March 2024, to commemorate the 65th anniversary of International Women's Day, Viola Davis was one of a number of female celebrities that had their likeness turned into Barbie dolls.
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In December 2024, Viola Davis reprised her role as Amanda Waller in the animated Max TV series Creature Commandos.
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In 2025, Viola Davis starred in G20, an action thriller in which she plays the US president.
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In 2011, Viola 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.
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In 2018, Viola Davis donated funds to her alma mater, Central Falls High School, for its theater program.
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Since 2014, Viola Davis has collaborated with the Hunger Is campaign to help eradicate childhood hunger across America.
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In September 2017, Viola 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.
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Viola Davis was a speaker at the 2018 Women's March event in Los Angeles.
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Viola Davis is a stepmother to Tennon's two children from previous relationships.
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Viola Davis is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of her generation.
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Viola Davis holds the distinction of becoming the first actress of color to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
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Viola Davis is the first African-American to win five Screen Actors Guild Awards.
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Viola Davis is 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.
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Viola Davis has received nominations for six Golden Globes Awards and three BAFTA Awards, winning one of each, in addition to winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Fences.
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Viola Davis is the first actress of colour to have received four Academy Award nominations.
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Viola Davis has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the following films:.
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Viola Davis was awarded an honorary doctorate in Fine Arts from her undergraduate alma mater, Rhode Island College, in 2002.
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On January 20,2020, Viola Davis was awarded an honorary doctoral degree in fine arts from Indiana University.