Viola Davis

Bio:
Viola Davis (born August 11, 1965 in St. Matthews, SC) is an award-winning America actress in TV, film and stage. She discovered her love of acting while a high school student in Rhode Island. She enrolled in Rhode Island College, majoring in theater and graduating in 1988. She later attended prestigious fine arts academy Julliard School, graduating in 1993. In 2001, she won the Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for her portrayal of Tonya in King Hedley II. She then moved on to roles in film, getting her first Academy Award nomination for her supporting role in 2009’s Doubt.  She earned her second Oscar nomination — this time as Lead Actress — in 2011 for The Help, narrowly losing to Meryl Streep. In addition to her film work, she has played Prof. Annalise Keating on ABC’s legal drama How To Get Away With Murder since 2014. She became the first African-American actress to win a Prime Time Emmy in the Lead Actress category for the role in 2015. On Jan. 8, 2017, she won a Golden Globe award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture for Fences opposite Denzel Washington. Proving her versatility, she also had a key role in 2016’s DC Comics’ action flick Suicide Squad. On February 26, 2017, Viola won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Fences.

Best Known For:
Viola Davis is best known for being an award-winning American actress.

Personal Life:
Viola was born in her grandparents’ house on the Singleton Plantation in St. Matthews, SC, the second youngest of six children. Her father Dan was a horse trainer and her mother Mary Alice was a mai and factory worker. The family minus the two oldest children moved to Rhode Island when Viola was a child, and she has described how she grew up in “abject poverty.” Viola has been married to actor Julius Tennon since June 2003, and they have an adopted daughter Genesis, born in 2011.