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 at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con

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 till date.^[33][34] In the same year, she and Washington reprised their role 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]

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1996	The Substance of Fire	Nurse		[41]
1998	Out of Sight	Moselle Miller		[42]
	Miss Apprehension and Squirt	Sharon Hughes		[43]
2000	Traffic	Social Worker		[44]
2001	The Shrink Is In	Robin		[45]
	Ocean's Eleven	Parole board interrogator	Uncredited	[44]
	Kate & Leopold	Policewoman		[46]
2002	Far from Heaven	Sybil		[47]
	Antwone Fisher	Eva May Fisher		[48]
	Solaris	Dr. Gordon		[49]
2005	Get Rich or Die Tryin'	Grandma		[50]
	Syriana	CIA Chairwoman	Uncredited	[51]
2006	The Architect	Tonya Neely		[47]
	World Trade Center	Mother in Hospital		[47]
2007	Disturbia	Detective Parker
2008	Nights in Rodanthe	Jean		[52]
	Doubt	Mrs. Miller		[53]
2009	Madea Goes to Jail	Ellen St. Matthews		[54]
	State of Play	Dr. Judith Franklin		[55]
	Law Abiding Citizen	Mayor April Henry		[56]
	Beyond All Boundaries	Hortense Johnson / Arsenal Worker	Voice; Short film
2010	Knight and Day	Director Isabel George		[57]
	Eat Pray Love	Delia Shiraz		[58]
	It's Kind of a Funny Story	Dr. Minerva		[59]
	Trust	Gail Friedman		[60]
	The Unforgiving Minute	Narrator	Short film
2011	The Help	Aibileen Clark		[61]
	Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close	Abby Black		[62]
2012	Won't Back Down	Nona Alberts		[63]
2013	Beautiful Creatures	Amarie "Amma" Treadeau		[64]
	Ender's Game	Major Anderson		[65]
	The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby	Professor Lillian Friedman		[66]
	Prisoners	Nancy Birch		[67]
2014	Get On Up	Susie Brown		[68]
2015	Blackhat	FBI Agent Carol Barrett		[69]
	Lila & Eve	Lila Walcott	Also executive producer	[70]
2016	Custody	Judge Martha Sherman	Also executive producer	[71]
	Suicide Squad	Amanda Waller		[72]
	Fences	Rose Maxson		[73]
2018	Widows	Veronica Rawlings		[74]
2019	Troop Zero	Rayleen		[75]
2020	Giving Voice	Herself	Documentary; also executive producer	[76]
	Ma Rainey's Black Bottom	Ma Rainey		[77]
2021	The Suicide Squad	Amanda Waller		[78]
	The Unforgivable	Liz Ingram		[79]
2022	The Woman King	Nanisca	Also producer	[80]
	Black Adam	Amanda Waller	Uncredited	[81]
2023	Air	Deloris Jordan		[82]
	The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes	Dr. Volumnia Gaul		[83]
2024	Kung Fu Panda 4	The Chameleon	Voice	[84]
2025	G20	President Danielle Sutton	Also producer	[85]
2027	Children of Blood and Bone †	Mama Agba	Filming	[86]

Key

†	Denotes film or TV productions that have not yet been released

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1996	NYPD Blue	Woman	Episode: "Moby Greg"	[8]
	New York Undercover	Rebecca Stapleton	Episode: "Smack is Back"	[87]
1998	The Pentagon Wars	Sgt. First Class Fanning	Television film	[88]
	Grace and Glorie	Rosemary Allbright	Television film	[89]
2000	Judging Amy	Celeste	Episode: "Blast from the Past"	[90]
	City of Angels	Nurse Lynnette Peeler	24 episodes	[91]
2001	Amy & Isabelle	Dottie	Television film	[92]
	Providence	Dr. Eleanor Weiss	Episode: "You Can Count On Me"	[93]
	The Guardian	Attorney Suzanna Clemons	Episode: "The Men from the Boys"	[94]
	Third Watch	Margo Rodriguez	Episode: "Act Brave"	[95]
2002	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Terry Randolph	Episode: "Badge"	[96]
	The Division	Dr. Georgia Davis	Episode: "Remembrance"	[97]
	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Attorney Campbell	Episode: "The Execution of Catherine Willows"	[98]
	Father Lefty	—	Unaired Pilot	[99]
2003	Hack	Stevie Morgan	Episode: "Third Strike"	[100]
	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Donna Emmett	Episode: "Mercy"	[101]
	The Practice	Aisha Crenshaw	Episode: "We the People"	[102]
2004	Century City	Hannah Crane	9 episodes	[103]
2005	Jesse Stone: Stone Cold	Molly Crane	Television film	[104]
	Threshold	Victoria Rossi	Episode: "Shock"	[105]
2006	Jesse Stone: Night Passage	Molly Crane	Television film	[106]
	Jesse Stone: Death in Paradise	Molly Crane	Television film	[107]
	Without a Trace	Audrey Williams	Episode: "White Balance"	[108]
	Life Is Not a Fairytale	Diane Barrino	Television film	[109]
2007	Jesse Stone: Sea Change	Molly Crane	Television film	[110]
	Traveler	Agent Jan Marlow	8 episodes	[111]
	Fort Pit	—	Television film	[111]
2008	Brothers & Sisters	Ellen Snyder	Episode: "Double Negative"	[112]
	The Andromeda Strain	Dr. Charlene Barton	3 episodes	[113]
2003–2008	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Donna Emmett	7 episodes	[114]
2009	United States of Tara	Lynda P. Frazier	6 episodes	[115]
2013	Sofia the First	Helen Hanshaw	Voice; Episode: "The Buttercups"	[116]
2014–2020	How to Get Away with Murder	Annalise Keating	90 episodes; Lead role, also producer (60 episodes)	[117]
2018	Scandal	Annalise Keating	Episode: "Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself"	[118]
2019	Live in Front of a Studio Audience	Florida Evans	Episode: "All in the Family and Good Times"	[119]
2020	Celebrity IOU	Herself	Episode: "Viola Davis Delivers a Dream Home"	[120]
2022	Peacemaker	Amanda Waller	2 episodes (uncredited)	[121]
	The First Lady	Michelle Obama	10 episodes; also executive producer	[122]
2024–present	Creature Commandos	Amanda Waller	Voice; 3 episodes	[123]

Key

†	Denotes series that have not yet been released

Theatre

Year	Production	Role	Theater	Ref.
1988	Joe Turner's Come and Gone	Mattie	Trinity Repertory Company	[124]
1992	As You Like It	Denise	Delacorte Theater	[125]
1996	Seven Guitars	Vera	Eugene O'Neill Theater Center Walter Kerr Theatre, Broadway	[126] [127]
1997	God's Heart	Eleanor	Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater	[128]
1998	Pericles	2nd Fisherman / Lychorida / Bawd	Joseph Papp Public Theater, Martinson Hall	[129]
1999	A Raisin in the Sun	Ruth Younger	Williamstown Theatre Festival	[130]
	Everybody's Ruby	Ruby McCollum	Joseph Papp Public Theater / Anspacher Theater	[131]
	The Vagina Monologues	Performer (Replacement)	Westside Theatre (Downstairs)	[132]
2001	King Hedley II	Tonya	Virginia Theatre, Broadway	[133]
2004	Intimate Apparel	Esther	Roundabout Theatre	[134]
2010	Fences	Rose Maxson	Cort Theatre, Broadway	[135]

Producer

Year	Production	Notes	Ref.
2014	Camp Logan	Theater play	[136]
2015	The Brink	Short	[137]
2017	The Night Shift	Short	[138]
	Emerging Artist Series	TV series	[139]
	American Koko	12 episodes, also narrator	[140]
	EIF Presents: XQ Super School Live	Television special	[141]
2018	The Last Defense	TV series documentary	[142]
	Two Sides	Four part documentary series	[143]
2023	Silver Dollar Road	Documentary film	[144]

See also

• List of awards and nominations received by Viola Davis