Viola Davis on screen and stage

Viola Davis is an American actress and producer who has appeared in film, television, and on stage.^[1][2][3] She received her equity card with her stage debut in 1988 with August Wilson's The Pittsburgh Cycle play Joe Turner's Come and Gone production of Trinity Repertory Company.^[4] After graduating from Juilliard School in 1993, Davis went on to perform several roles on stage in the 1990s,^[5][6] earning Theater World Award for her role in Seven Guitars (1996).^[7] In the same year, Davis guest-starred in the procedural drama series NYPD Blue,^[8] and made her film debut with a brief one-day role alongside Timothy Hutton in The Substance of Fire.^[9] In 1998, she appeared in Richard Benjamin's television movie The Pentagon Wars,^[10] and Steven Soderbergh's Out of Sight,^[11] before returning to the stage with an Obie Award winning titular performance in Off-Broadway Everybody's Ruby (1999).^[12][13]

Davis established herself as a leading actress of Broadway in the 2000s.^[14] She starred in her first recurring role in the 2000 medical drama City of Angels,^[8] before winning Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performance as a wife of ex-con in King Hedley II (2001), the ninth play of Wilson's The Pittsburgh Cycle.^[15] She received further acclaim for her role as a Black seamstress in Intimate Apparel (2004) that won her the Drama Desk Award.^[16] Four years later, a supporting role in the period drama Doubt (2008) proved to be a breakthrough for Davis and she received Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nominations for it.^[17][18] Davis starred opposite Denzel Washington as a dutiful yet strong minded wife Rose Maxson,^[19] in a revival of Wilson's play Fences (2010), that earned her Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.^[20] The same year she played Julia Roberts' best friend in romantic-comedy Eat Pray Love.^[21]

In 2011, Davis's role in an ensemble drama as a housemaid in The Help earned her Best Actress Oscar nomination, among other accolades.^[22] Her performances in school drama Won't Back Down (2012),^[23] thriller Prisoners (2013),^[24] and biopic Get on Up (2014),^[25] added further acclaim to her career. Davis became the first Black woman to win Emmy Award for Best Actress,^[26] for her role as criminal defense attorney Annalise Keating in television series How to Get Away with Murder (2014).^[27] In 2015, she starred and served as an executive producer in vigilante thriller Lila & Eve,^[28] and courtroom drama Custody the following year;^[29] both films received a mixed reception overall.^[30] She appeared as an antagonist Amanda Waller in superhero film Suicide Squad (2016),^[31][32] her biggest commercial success to date.^[33][34] In the same year, she and Washington reprised their roles in the film-adaption of Fences,^[35] for which Davis received Best Supporting Actress honors at the BAFTAs, SAG Awards, Golden Globe Awards, and Academy Awards.^[36] Following her Oscar win, she became the first Black actor to win Triple Crown of Acting.^[37][38] Davis co-founded the JuVee Productions with her husband Julius Tennon in 2012.^[39][40]