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(137)
Self
2015
Self - Guest
2015
2019
Self
2014
Self - Guest
2014
Self - Guest
2009
Self
2007
Self
1968
Donna Emmett
1999
Self - Guest
1997
Self
1997
Sergeant Terry Randolph
2001
Attorney Campbell
2000
Self
2002
Self
2015
Aisha Crenshaw
1997
Self
1979
Helen Hanshaw (voice)
2013
Self
2003
Self - Presenter
1944
Self - Nominee
1944
Woman
1993
Self
2015
Annalise Keating
2014
Self
2014
Ellen Snyder
2006
Audrey Williams
2002
Self - Presenter
1956
Amanda Waller (uncredited)
2022
The Chameleon (voice)
2024
Amanda Waller (voice)
2024
Annalise Keating
2012
Self
1953
Celeste
1999
Self
2022
Margo Rodriguez
1999
Dr. Charlene Barton
2008
Stevie Morgan
2002
Rosemary Allbright
1951
2005
Suzanna Clemons' Attorney
2001
Self
2025
President Danielle Sutton
2025
Dr. Volumnia Gaul (archive footage)
2012
Nancy Birch
2013
Self (archive footage)
2021
Michelle Obama
2022
Dr. Eleanor Weiss
1999
2009
Dr. Georgia Davis
2001
Self
2024
Dr. Volumnia Gaul
2023
Amanda Waller (uncredited)
2022
Self
2020
Amanda Waller
2021
Parole Board Interrogator (voice) (uncredited)
2001
Aibileen Clark
2011
Nanisca
2022
Deloris Jordan
2023
Mayor April Henry
2009
Amanda Waller
2016
CIA Director Isabel George
2010
Self - Guest
2021
Self
2020
Delia Shiraz
2010
Amanda Waller
Social Worker
2000
Grandma
2005
Major Gwen Anderson
2013
Moselle
1998
Carol Barrett
2015
Detective Parker
2007
2004
Rose Maxson
2016
Agent Jan Marlow
2007
Veronica Rawlings
2018
Liz Ingram
2021
Dr. Judith Franklin
2009
Mother in Hospital with Donna
2006
CIA Chairwoman
2005
Gail Friedman
2010
Susie Brown
2014
Amma Treadeau
2013
Mrs. Miller
2008
Gordon
2002
Policewoman
2001
Ma Rainey
2020
Abby Black
2011
Ellen
2009
Dr. Eden Minerva
2010
Lynnette Peeler
2000
Eva May
2002
Molly Crane
2005
Self
1959
Self (archive footage)
2018
Miss Rayleen
2019
Jean
2008
Sybil
2002
Officer Molly Crane
2006
Lila Walcott
2015
Nona Alberts
2012
Sgt. Fanning
1998
Professor Lillian Friedman
2014
Molly Crane
2006
Florida Evans
2019
Self
2013
Rosemary Allbright
1998
Molly Crane
2007
Self
2022
Tonya Neely
2006
Self (archive footage)
2019
The Vengeful Caretaker
2011
Professor Lillian Friedman
2014
Mama Agba
2027
Robin
2001
Martha Schulman
2016
Nurse
1996
Professor Lillian Friedman
2014
Dottie
2001
Hortense Johnson
2009
Diane Barrino
2006
Self
2015
Self
2020
Tonya (segment "King Hedley II")
2006
Narrator
Rachel Dupree
Dr. Georgia Young
Ally Clark
Self
2009
Self (Dr. Volumnia Gaul)
2024
Narrator
2019
Sharon Hughes
1998
Narration
2025
