1965-08-11 St. Matthews, South Carolina, USA
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.
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Children of Blood and Bone | Mama Agba | 2027-01-15 |
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G20 | President Danielle Sutton | 2025-04-10 |
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The Ebony Canal: A Story of Black Infant Mortality | Narration | 2025-02-13 |
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Kung Fu Panda 4 | The Chameleon (voice) | 2024-03-02 |
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Predator or Prey: Making The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes | Self (Dr. Volumnia Gaul) | 2024-02-13 |
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The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes | Dr. Volumnia Gaul | 2023-11-15 |
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Air | Deloris Jordan | 2023-04-05 |
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The Woman King | Nanisca | 2022-09-16 |
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Black Adam | Amanda Waller (uncredited) | 2022-10-19 |
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Oprah + Viola: A Netflix Special Event | Self | 2022-04-22 |
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The Suicide Squad | Amanda Waller | 2021-07-28 |
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The Unforgivable | Liz Ingram | 2021-11-24 |
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Giving Voice | Self | 2020-01-26 |
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Ma Rainey's Black Bottom | Ma Rainey | 2020-11-25 |
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A Touch of Sugar | Narrator | 2019-04-24 |
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Live in Front of a Studio Audience: "All in the Family" and "Good Times" | Florida Evans | 2019-12-18 |
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Troop Zero | Miss Rayleen | 2019-02-01 |
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On Broadway | Self (archive footage) | 2019-10-12 |
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Beyond Boundaries: The Harvey Weinstein Scandal | Self (archive footage) | 2018-08-21 |
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Widows | Veronica Rawlings | 2018-11-06 |
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Custody | Martha Schulman | 2016-04-17 |
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Suicide Squad | Amanda Waller | 2016-08-03 |
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Fences | Rose Maxson | 2016-12-16 |
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Blackhat | Carol Barrett | 2015-01-13 |
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August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand | Self | 2015-02-20 |
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Lila & Eve | Lila Walcott | 2015-07-31 |
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The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them | Professor Lillian Friedman | 2014-05-14 |
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Get on Up | Susie Brown | 2014-08-01 |
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The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her | Professor Lillian Friedman | 2014-10-10 |
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The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him | Professor Lillian Friedman | 2014-10-10 |
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Love, Marilyn | Self | 2013-05-30 |
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Beautiful Creatures | Amma Treadeau | 2013-02-13 |
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Ender's Game | Major Gwen Anderson | 2013-10-24 |
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Prisoners | Nancy Birch | 2013-09-19 |
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Won't Back Down | Nona Alberts | 2012-09-28 |
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Touch of Evil | The Vengeful Caretaker | 2011-12-06 |
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The Help | Aibileen Clark | 2011-08-09 |
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Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close | Abby Black | 2011-12-25 |
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It's Kind of a Funny Story | Dr. Eden Minerva | 2010-10-08 |
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Eat Pray Love | Delia Shiraz | 2010-08-12 |
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Knight and Day | CIA Director Isabel George | 2010-06-15 |
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Trust | Gail Friedman | 2010-09-10 |
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Beyond All Boundaries | Hortense Johnson | 2009-11-09 |
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Law Abiding Citizen | Mayor April Henry | 2009-10-15 |
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Madea Goes to Jail | Ellen | 2009-02-20 |
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Doubt: Stage to Screen | Self | 2009-04-07 |
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State of Play | Dr. Judith Franklin | 2009-04-17 |
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Doubt | Mrs. Miller | 2008-12-12 |
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Nights in Rodanthe | Jean | 2008-09-26 |
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Jesse Stone: Sea Change | Molly Crane | 2007-05-22 |
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Disturbia | Detective Parker | 2007-03-27 |
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Jesse Stone: Death in Paradise | Molly Crane | 2006-04-30 |
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The Architect | Tonya Neely | 2006-12-01 |
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The Best of The Tony Awards: The Plays | Tonya (segment "King Hedley II") | 2006-05-02 |
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Jesse Stone: Night Passage | Officer Molly Crane | 2006-01-15 |
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World Trade Center | Mother in Hospital with Donna | 2006-08-09 |
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Life Is Not a Fairytale: The Fantasia Barrino Story | Diane Barrino | 2006-08-19 |
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Get Rich or Die Tryin' | Grandma | 2005-11-09 |
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Stone Cold | Molly Crane | 2005-02-20 |
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Syriana | CIA Chairwoman | 2005-11-23 |
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Antwone Fisher | Eva May | 2002-12-19 |
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Solaris | Gordon | 2002-11-27 |
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Far from Heaven | Sybil | 2002-11-08 |
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Kate & Leopold | Policewoman | 2001-12-25 |
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The Shrink Is In | Robin | 2001-08-01 |
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Ocean's Eleven | Parole Board Interrogator (voice) (uncredited) | 2001-12-07 |
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Amy & Isabelle | Dottie | 2001-03-04 |
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Traffic | Social Worker | 2000-12-27 |
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Miss Apprehension and Squirt | Sharon Hughes | 1998-01-01 |
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Out of Sight | Moselle | 1998-06-26 |
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Grace & Glorie | Rosemary Allbright | 1998-12-13 |
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The Pentagon Wars | Sgt. Fanning | 1998-02-28 |
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The Substance of Fire | Nurse | 1996-09-11 |
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Operation Othello | Narrator | |
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The Personal History of Rachel DuPree | Rachel Dupree | |
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Two Butterflies | ||
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Small Great Things | ||
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I Almost Forgot About You | Dr. Georgia Young |
