Viola Davis

Happy Birthday to Viola Davis! She was born on August 11, 1965, in St. Matthews, South Carolina, to Mae Alice Davis (née Logan) and Dan Davis. She was born on her grandmother's farm on the Singleton Plantation. Her father was a horse trainer, and her mother was a maid, factory worker and homemaker. She is the second youngest of six children, having four sisters and a brother. Soon after she was born, her parents moved with Davis and two of her older siblings to Central Falls, Rhode Island, leaving her other siblings with her grandparents. Her mother was also an activist during the Civil Rights Movement. When she was two years old, Davis was taken to jail with her mother after she was arrested during a civil rights protest. She has described herself as having "lived in abject poverty and dysfunction" during her childhood, recalling living in "rat-infested and condemned" apartments Davis is a second cousin of actor Mike Colter, known for portraying the Marvel Comics character Luke Cage and the horror series Evil.

Her powerful and emotional performances in such plays as Intimate Apparel and King Hedley II made her a formidable presence on the American theater scene in the late 1990s and 2000s. Her profile in film and on television was somewhat lower at the time, 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 (1996). She was paid $518. Davis continued acting off Broadway in various productions and appeared in bit parts on television including episodes of NYPD Blue (1996), and New York Undercover (1996). She also appeared in the HBO television military comedy film, The Pentagon Wars (1996) starring Kelsey Grammer, and Cary Elwes. she then worked steadily in supporting parts for directors ranging from Steven Soderbergh with Out of Sight (1998), Traffic (2000) and Solaris (2002) as well as George Clooney's Syriana (2005), which Soderbergh produced and Oliver Stone with World Trade Center (2006) she was also in the romantic comedy Kate & Leopold (2001) and the drama Antwone Fisher (2002). She also played secondary roles in Todd Haynes' costume drama Far from Heaven (2002), starring Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid. as well as in countless television series, including a recurring role in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, starring roles in two short-lived series, Traveler and Century City and a special guest appearance in a Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode entitled "Badge."


In 2008, 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. Though Davis had only one scene in the film, she remained a highlight of the film with noted film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times specifically praising her performance writing, "It lasts about 10 minutes, but it is the emotional heart and soul of "Doubt," and if Viola Davis isn't nominated by the Academy, an injustice will have been done." Ebert would further go on to write, "She goes face to face with the pre-eminent film actress of this generation, and it is a confrontation of two equals that generates terrifying power." She was nominated for several awards for her performance, including a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. On June 30, 2009, Davis was inducted into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 2010, Davis returned to Broadway in her third August Wilson play, this time a revival of Fences as Rose Maxson, acting alongside Denzel Washington. Her performance received raves from critics On June 13, 2010, Davis won her second Tony Award for her performance. She was the second African American to win the Tony for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play, after Phylicia Rashad. In 2010

Davis had small roles in the romantic comedy thriller Knight and Day starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz, the horror thriller Disturbia (2007) and the romantic comedy Eat Pray Love starring Julia Roberts. That same year she also played the role of Dr. Minerva in It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010), a coming-of-age film written and directed by Anna Boden with Ryan Fleck, adapted from the 2006 novel by Ned Vizzini. In August 2011, Davis starred as Aibileen Clark, a housemaid in 1960s Mississippi, in the film adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's novel The Help, directed by Tate Taylor and co-starring Emma Stone, and Octavia Spencer. Davis described her performance in the film as channeling her mother and grandmother saying, "I feel like I brought my mom to life; I've channeled her spirit. I channeled the spirit of my grandmother, and I've kind of paid homage to how they've contributed to my life and the lives of so many people". She 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. Davis garnered critical acclaim for her performance and eventually won two Screen Actors Guild Awards, in addition to receiving her second Academy Award nomination, which she ultimately lost to Meryl Streep. Davis received Golden Globe Award and BAFTA Award nominations for the same performance. In 2012, Time magazine listed Davis as one of the most influential people in the world. Also in 2012, Glamour magazine named Davis Glamour's Film Actress of the year. In 2014, Davis reunited with The Help director Tate Taylor in Get on Up, a biopic of James Brown, playing Brown's mother. Her 3-year-old daughter, Genesis also appeared in the movie.

In February 2014, Davis was cast in Peter Nowalk's pilot How to Get Away with Murder (executive produced by Shonda Rhimes for her ShondaLand production company) as the lead character. Her character, Annalise Keating, is a tough criminal defense attorney and professor who becomes entangled in murder plot with her students. n September 2015, 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. In 2015, Davis appeared in Blackhat, a Michael Mann-directed thriller film starring Chris Hemsworth. Davis also served as executive-producer of the crime drama film Lila & Eve, starring herself and Jennifer Lopez in the titular roles. In 2016, Davis starred in the courtroom drama Custody, on which she also 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. In 2016, Davis reprised her role as Rose Maxson for the film adaptation of Fences directed by and starring Denzel Washington. Her performance garnered critical acclaim and she received her third Academy Award nomination, making her the first black actress in history to achieve this feat. She 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. The recipient of an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Tony Awards, she is the first African American and youngest actor to achieve the "Triple Crown of Acting."

In 2018, Davis debuted Two-Sides, a documentary series exploring police brutality towards the African American community. The series debuted on TV One, running through till mid-February. Davis also 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. Davis's guest appearance garnered her a fourth Emmy Award nomination, and her first for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. That same year, Davis starred in the Steve McQueen heist thriller Widows alongside Cynthia Erivo, Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Rodriguez, and Liam Neeson. The film was an adaptation of the popular 1983 British miniseries. She received her second British Academy Film Award nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance. In 2020, 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. The film had its world premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival on January 26 and was released by Netflix on December 11, 2020. That same year, Davis starred in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom as the titular character based upon the play of the same name acting alongside Chadwick Boseman in his final onscreen performance. The project was directed by George C. Wolfe for Netflix. She received an NAACP Image Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. With that nomination, Davis became the most nominated Black actress in the history of the Academy Awards, with four acting nominations, and the first Black actress to have been nominated for Best Actress more than once. The audiobook narration of her 2022 memoir Finding Me earned Davis a Grammy Award in 2023, making Davis one of the few performers to have been awarded an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony (EGOT).

In 2021, Davis reprised her role as Amanda Waller in the superhero film The Suicide Squad. Also in 2021, she appeared alongside Sandra Bullock in the drama film The Unforgivable, directed by Nora Fingscheidt. 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. Davis executive produced and played former First Lady Michelle Obama in The First Lady, a Showtime drama series. It premiered in April 2022. In 2022, Davis starred in The Woman King, inspired by true events that took place within The Kingdom of Dahomey. In February 2023, it was announced that Davis will reprise her role as Amanda Waller in both the two upcoming HBO Max TV series, the animated Creature Commandos and the live-action Waller. She was recently in the Amazon Prime film Air, directed by Ben Affleck and starring Matt Damon and Jason Bateman. She played the mother of Michael Jordan. Davis is a Christian and regularly attends services at Oasis Church in Los Angeles. Davis married actor Julius Tennon in June 2003. In 2011, the couple adopted an infant daughter named Genesis. Davis is also a stepmother to Tennon's two children from previous relationships.