Viola Davis
Acting
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.
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Media of
Viola Davis
Photos (21)
Filmography of
Viola Davis
Mama Agba
... 2027
President Danielle Sutton
... 2025
... 2025
The Chameleon (voice)
... 2024
Self (Dr. Volumnia Gaul)
... 2024
Dr. Volumnia Gaul
... 2023
Deloris Jordan
... 2023
Amanda Waller (uncredited)
... 2022
Nanisca
... 2022
... 2022
Liz Ingram
... 2021
Amanda Waller
... 2021
Ma Rainey
... 2020
Self
... 2020
... 2019
Self (archive footage)
... 2019
Narrator
... 2019
Miss Rayleen
... 2019
Veronica Rawlings
... 2018
Self (archive footage)
... 2018
Rose Maxson
... 2016
Amanda Waller
... 2016
Martha Schulman
... 2016
Lila Walcott
... 2015
... 2015
Carol Barrett
... 2015
Professor Lillian Friedman
... 2014
Professor Lillian Friedman
... 2014
Susie Brown
... 2014
Professor Lillian Friedman
... 2014
Major Gwen Anderson
... 2013
Nancy Birch
... 2013
Self
... 2013
Amma Treadeau
... 2013
Nona Alberts
... 2012
Abby Black
... 2011
Aibileen Clark
... 2011
Dr. Eden Minerva
... 2010
Gail Friedman
... 2010
Delia Shiraz
... 2010
CIA Director Isabel George
... 2010
Hortense Johnson
... 2009
Mayor April Henry
... 2009
Dr. Judith Franklin
... 2009
... 2009
Ellen
... 2009
Mrs. Miller
... 2008
Jean
... 2008
Molly Crane
... 2007
Detective Parker
... 2007
Tonya Neely
... 2006
Diane Barrino
... 2006
Mother in Hospital
... 2006
Tonya (segment "King Hedley II")
... 2006
Molly Crane
... 2006
Officer Molly Crane
... 2006
CIA Chairwoman
... 2005
Grandma
... 2005
Molly Crane
... 2005
Eva May
... 2002
Gordon
... 2002
Sybil
... 2002
Policewoman
... 2001
Parole Board Interrogator (voice) (uncredited)
... 2001
Robin
... 2001
Dottie
... 2001
Social Worker
... 2000
Rosemary Allbright
... 1998
Moselle
... 1998
Sgt. Fanning
... 1998
Sharon Hughes
... 1998
Nurse
... 1996
Narrator
Dr. Georgia Young
Rachel Dupree
Ally Clark