Viola Davis
Acting • Born 1965-08-11
Biography
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.
Filmography
138 credits
Doubt: Stage to Screen
Movie • 2009
Self
Solaris
Movie • 2002
Gordon
Operation Othello
Movie
Narrator
Get Rich or Die Tryin'
Movie • 2005
Grandma
World Trade Center
Movie • 2006
Mother in Hospital
Far from Heaven
Movie • 2002
Sybil
Jesse Stone: Death in Paradise
Movie • 2006
Molly Crane
Law Abiding Citizen
Movie • 2009
Mayor April Henry
Stone Cold
Movie • 2005
Molly Crane
Jesse Stone: Night Passage
Movie • 2006
Officer Molly Crane
Disturbia
Movie • 2007
Detective Parker
The Pentagon Wars
Movie • 1998
Sgt. Fanning
Nights in Rodanthe
Movie • 2008
Jean
Doubt
Movie • 2008
Mrs. Miller
Madea Goes to Jail
Movie • 2009
Ellen
Knight and Day
Movie • 2010
CIA Director Isabel George
Eat Pray Love
Movie • 2010
Delia Shiraz
Trust
Movie • 2010
Gail Friedman
State of Play
Movie • 2009
Dr. Judith Franklin
The Shrink Is In
Movie • 2001
Robin
Ender's Game
Movie • 2013
Major Gwen Anderson
The Help
Movie • 2011
Aibileen Clark
Two Butterflies
Movie
Won't Back Down
Movie • 2012
Nona Alberts
On Broadway
Movie • 2019
Self (archive footage)
Love, Marilyn
Movie • 2013
Self
Amy & Isabelle
Movie • 2001
Dottie
Beautiful Creatures
Movie • 2013
Amma Treadeau
Prisoners
Movie • 2013
Nancy Birch
Oprah + Viola: A Netflix Special Event
Movie • 2022
Self
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them
Movie • 2014
Professor Lillian Friedman
I Almost Forgot About You
Movie
Dr. Georgia Young
Blackhat
Movie • 2015
Carol Barrett
The Substance of Fire
Movie • 1996
Nurse
Air
Movie • 2023
Deloris Jordan
Get On Up
Movie • 2014
Susie Brown
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her
Movie • 2014
Professor Lillian Friedman
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Movie • 2011
Abby Black
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him
Movie • 2014
Professor Lillian Friedman
Black Adam
Movie • 2022
Amanda Waller (uncredited)
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
Movie • 2023
Dr. Volumnia Gaul
Kung Fu Panda 4
Movie • 2024
The Chameleon (voice)
Suicide Squad
Movie • 2016
Amanda Waller
Lila & Eve
Movie • 2015
Lila Walcott
G20
Movie • 2025
President Danielle Sutton
The Architect
Movie • 2006
Tonya Neely
Predator or Prey: Making The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
Movie • 2024
Self (Dr. Volumnia Gaul)
It's Kind of a Funny Story
Movie • 2010
Dr. Eden Minerva
Miss Apprehension and Squirt
Movie • 1998
Sharon Hughes
Giving Voice
Movie • 2020
Self
Ocean's Eleven
Movie • 2001
Parole Board Interrogator (voice) (uncredited)
Jesse Stone: Sea Change
Movie • 2007
Molly Crane
Custody
Movie • 2016
Martha Schulman
Fences
Movie • 2016
Rose Maxson
Kate & Leopold
Movie • 2001
Policewoman
August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand
Movie • 2015
Self
Out of Sight
Movie • 1998
Moselle
Antwone Fisher
Movie • 2002
Eva May
Traffic
Movie • 2000
Social Worker
Small Great Things
Movie
The Personal History of Rachel DuPree
Movie
Rachel Dupree
Syriana
Movie • 2005
CIA Chairwoman
Widows
Movie • 2018
Veronica Rawlings
Troop Zero
Movie • 2019
Miss Rayleen
Beyond All Boundaries
Movie • 2009
Hortense Johnson
Beyond Boundaries: The Harvey Weinstein Scandal
Movie • 2018
Self (archive footage)
The Best of The Tony Awards: The Plays
Movie • 2006
Tonya (segment "King Hedley II")
The Suicide Squad
Movie • 2021
Amanda Waller
Life Is Not a Fairytale: The Fantasia Barrino Story
Movie • 2006
Diane Barrino
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Movie • 2020
Ma Rainey
The Unforgivable
Movie • 2021
Liz Ingram
Live in Front of a Studio Audience: "All in the Family" and "Good Times"
Movie • 2019
Florida Evans
A Touch of Sugar
Movie • 2019
Narrator
The Woman King
Movie • 2022
Nanisca
Grace & Glorie
Movie • 1998
Rosemary Allbright
Children of Blood and Bone
Movie • 2027
Mama Agba
The Ebony Canal: A Story of Black Infant Mortality
Movie • 2025
Narration
Ally Clark
Movie
Ally Clark
House of Games
Movie
Food 2050
Movie • 2022
Self - Narrator (voice)
Third Watch
TV • 1999
Margo Rodriguez
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
TV • 2000
Attorney Campbell
Threshold
TV • 2005
The Division
TV • 2001
Dr. Georgia Davis
Providence
TV • 1999
Dr. Eleanor Weiss
Judging Amy
TV • 1999
Celeste
Traveler
TV • 2007
Agent Jan Marlow
Without a Trace
TV • 2002
Audrey Williams
NYPD Blue
TV • 1993
Woman
The Practice
TV • 1997
Aisha Crenshaw
60 Minutes
TV • 1968
Self
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
TV • 2015
Self
Century City
TV • 2004
Hallmark Hall of Fame
TV • 1951
Rosemary Allbright
United States of Tara
TV • 2009
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
TV • 2001
Terry Randolph
City of Angels
TV • 2000
Lynnette Peeler
The Andromeda Strain
TV • 2008
Dr. Charlene Barton
Live from E!
TV • 2002
Self
The Oscars
TV • 1953
Self
How to Get Away with Murder
TV • 2014
Annalise Keating
C ce soir, le débat
TV • 2021
Self - Guest
Brothers and Sisters
TV • 2006
Ellen Snyder
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
TV • 2003
Self
Peacemaker
TV • 2022
Amanda Waller (uncredited)
Dear...
TV • 2020
Self
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
TV • 2015
Self - Guest
The View
TV • 1997
Self - Guest
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
TV • 2014
Self
The Jennifer Hudson Show
TV • 2022
Self
Close Up with The Hollywood Reporter
TV • 2015
Self
Variety Studio: Actors on Actors
TV • 2014
Self
The View
TV • 1997
Self
Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen
TV • 2009
Self - Guest
Scandal
TV • 2012
Annalise Keating
Hot Ones
TV • 2015
Self
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
TV • 2014
Self - Guest
Hack
TV • 2002
Stevie Morgan
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
TV • 1999
Donna Emmett
Celebrity IOU
TV • 2020
Self
The First Lady
TV • 2022
Michelle Obama
The Graham Norton Show
TV • 2007
Self
CBS News Sunday Morning
TV • 1979
Self
Creature Commandos
TV • 2024
Amanda Waller (voice)
Sofia the First
TV • 2013
Helen Hanshaw (voice)
Number One on the Call Sheet
TV • 2025
Self
The Kelly Clarkson Show
TV • 2019
Self
Hot Ones Versus
TV • 2024
Self
The Grammys
TV • 1959
Self
Golden Globe Awards
TV • 1944
Self - Presenter
Golden Globe Awards
TV • 1944
Self - Nominee
The Guardian
TV • 2001
Suzanna Clemons' Attorney
The Simpsons
TV • 1989
Narrator (voice)
Late Night with Seth Meyers
TV • 2014
Self - Guest
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
TV • 2003
Self
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
TV • 1992
Self - Guest
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
TV • 2003
Self - Guest
The Actor Awards Presented by SAG-AFTRA
TV • 1995
Self