Viola Davis has worked her way into becoming a household name over the years – and if she is not a household name for you, I highly suggest she become one. Viola Davis was born in St. Matthews, South Carolina. While she was born in South Carolina, she was raised in Rhode Island. Davis often makes remarks regarding her childhood and notes that she grew up in poverty. Davis has worked with The No Kid Hungry Campaign. She works with the hunger campaign by writing messages to Congress and other elected officials to spread awareness of the importance of programs such as SNAP. Davis urges for policy and funding for these programs, so that child hunger can be alleviated. She is so passionate about this due to her past of poverty, specifically growing up in a family of six who experienced food insecurity. In an interview on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, Davis noted how she would steal from stores and go through the trash to help find her family’s food. Davis also paired with Vaseline and their Vaseline Healing Project, to aid those in poverty receiving dermatology care. She also has given back to her hometown, by donating to save its public library, the Adams Memorial Library, in Central Falls, Rhode Island. In addition to the library, Davis has donated to her own Central Falls High School to fund its theater program.
Her career in Rhode Island was in minor stage productions before attending one of the most notable performing arts conservatories in the country: Juilliard. Just six years after her graduation from Julliard, Davis won an Obie Award for her lead role in Everybody’s Ruby. Obie Awards have been around since 1956, recognizing the work of actors in off-Broadway productions. She continued to act off and on Broadway, as well as minor film and TV roles throughout the early 2000s, which earned her a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for the 2001 Broadway production King Hedley II. In seven years, she would gain a significant role in the movie Doubt that not only jump-started her big screen career – but also earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama. In 2010, Davis earned a second Tony for Best Actress in a Play in the Broadway production of Fences. She also starred in the movie adaptation of Fences, which won her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In 2012, one of Davis’ most notable roles in The Help allowed her to have another Academy Award nomination for Best Actress and a Screen Actors Guild Award win, under her belt. Davis’ arguably most iconic (and my personal favorite) role ran from 2014-2020 as Annalise Keating on ABC’s How to Get Away with Murder. This role scored her a 2015 nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series – but when she won that award, she became the first African American woman to win that award. Since her departure from HTGAM, she has continued to reprise her role in the DC Universe as Amanda Walker, first seen in Suicide Squad. Recently, her lead role in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom gave her another Academy Award nomination, which has made her the most nominated African American woman in Oscar history.
Davis’ work as a philanthropist, activist, and actress has earned her so much recognition and it is all beyond deserved. This upcoming award season is just another opportunity for Davis to earn more credit, as well as make history. As mentioned, she already claimed the spot for the first African American woman to win the Lead Actress in a Drama category from the Emmy and is the most nominated African American woman in the Oscars’ history. However, she is also in the running for a nomination as the Lead Female Actress at the Oscars for The Woman King. If she were to be nominated for this category, and win it, she would continue her legacy of most Oscar nominations for an African American woman, as well as being the second black woman to receive this award (the first being Halle Berry). More surprisingly, Davis is nominated for Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording in the Grammy Awards, for her recording of her own New York Times Best Seller: Finding Me. If Davis wins this category, she will become a member of the EGOT (Emmy. Grammy. Oscar, and Tony) family – being the 18th person in all-time history to win this prestigious recognition.