Viola Davis

From Central Falls to Juilliard

Viola Davis was born in South Carolina and grew up in Central Falls, Rhode Island, in deep poverty. School drama programs and a youth theater gave her a path. She studied theater at Rhode Island College and then trained at the Juilliard School in New York, graduating in 1993.

Broadway first

Davis built her reputation on stage, especially in the plays of August Wilson. She won a Tony Award for King Hedley II in 2001 and a second, for Best Actress in a Play, for the 2010 revival of Fences opposite Denzel Washington.

Eight minutes that changed everything

Her film career took off with Doubt (2008). With only one major scene opposite Meryl Streep, she earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination. The Help (2011) brought a Best Actress nomination, and in 2015 she won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for How to Get Away with Murder, the first Black woman to win that award.

The Oscar and the Triple Crown

Davis won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for the film of Fences (2016), directed by Washington. That win gave her the so-called Triple Crown of Acting, an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony for performance, making her the first Black actor to achieve it.

A fourth Oscar nomination followed for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020), making her the most nominated Black actress in Academy history.

EGOT and producing

In 2023 her narration of her memoir Finding Me won a Grammy, completing the rare EGOT: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. With her husband Julius Tennon she runs the production company JuVee Productions, which develops stories with diverse casts and creators. For a full list of acting records, see our Oscar records page.

Where to start

See Doubt (2008) to understand how one scene can define a career, then The Help (2011) and Fences (2016). Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020) shows her completely transformed as the blues singer Ma Rainey, with gold teeth, heavy makeup and a commanding voice. On television, How to Get Away with Murder ran for six seasons from 2014 to 2020.

Her memoir Finding Me tells her story in her own words and is a powerful read for anyone who wants to act.

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