Viola Davis
Acting
🎂 1965-08-11
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.
Cast credits(134)
Donna Emmett
1999
Attorney Campbell
2000
Self
2014
Self - Guest
2014
Self
2007
Amanda Waller (uncredited)
2022
Sergeant Terry Randolph
2001
Audrey Williams
2002
Self
2019
The Chameleon (voice)
2024
Annalise Keating
2012
Self - Guest
2009
Self
1968
Self
2022
Self
2015
Self - Guest
2015
Aisha Crenshaw
1997
Self
2015
Annalise Keating
2014
Woman
1993
Self - Presenter
1956
Margo Rodriguez
1999
Nancy Birch
2013
Self - Presenter
1944
Self - Nominee
1944
Self
1979
Celeste
1999
Amanda Waller
2021
Self
2014
Self - Guest
1997
Self
1997
Aibileen Clark
2011
Carol Barrett
2015
Ellen Snyder
2006
Helen Hanshaw (voice)
2013
Self
2015
President Danielle Sutton
2025
Suzanna Clemons' Attorney
2001
Dr. Georgia Davis
2001
Dr. Eleanor Weiss
1999
Amanda Waller (voice)
2024
Parole Board Interrogator (voice) (uncredited)
2001
Self
2003
Dr. Volumnia Gaul
2023
Amanda Waller (uncredited)
2022
Self
1953
Mayor April Henry
2009
Amanda Waller
2016
Self
2002
Deloris Jordan
2023
CIA Director Isabel George
2010
Major Gwen Anderson
2013
Self
2020
Social Worker
2000
Self
2024
Grandma
2005
Nanisca
2022
Delia Shiraz
2010
Self - Guest
2021
Rose Maxson
2016
Mother in Hospital
2006
Detective Parker
2007
Veronica Rawlings
2018
Stevie Morgan
2002
Liz Ingram
2021
Dr. Judith Franklin
2009
Self
2025
Gail Friedman
2010
Policewoman
2001
Dr. Charlene Barton
2008
Michelle Obama
2022
2005
Ellen
2009
2009
Amma Treadeau
2013
Moselle
1998
Self
2020
Abby Black
2011
Susie Brown
2014
Jean
2008
CIA Chairwoman
2005
Mrs. Miller
2008
2004
Ma Rainey
2020
Gordon
2002
Molly Crane
2005
Narrator
Dr. Eden Minerva
2010
Agent Jan Marlow
2007
Eva May
2002
Self
2020
Professor Lillian Friedman
2014
Molly Crane
2006
Sybil
2002
Hortense Johnson
2009
Self (archive footage)
2018
Rosemary Allbright
1951
Lynnette Peeler
2000
Miss Rayleen
2019
Nona Alberts
2012
Self
2013
Robin
2001
Tonya (segment "King Hedley II")
2006
Sgt. Fanning
1998
Molly Crane
2007
Self (archive footage)
2019
Officer Molly Crane
2006
Self
2022
Self
2015
Florida Evans
2019
Lila Walcott
2015
Professor Lillian Friedman
2014
Professor Lillian Friedman
2014
Dottie
2001
Nurse
1996
Tonya Neely
2006
Mama Agba
2027
Rosemary Allbright
1998
Diane Barrino
2006
Amanda Waller
Self (Dr. Volumnia Gaul)
2024
Rachel Dupree
Martha Schulman
2016
Self
2009
Self
1959
Narration
2025
Dr. Georgia Young
Ally Clark
Narrator
2019
Sharon Hughes
1998
