Viola Davis
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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.
Known for
Credits
Prisoners (2013)
as Nancy Birch
The Suicide Squad (2021)
as Amanda Waller
Black Adam (2022)
as Amanda Waller (uncredited)
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023)
as Dr. Volumnia Gaul
The Help (2011)
as Aibileen Clark
Ocean's Eleven (2001)
as Parole Board Interrogator (voice) (uncredited)
Law Abiding Citizen (2009)
as Mayor April Henry
Blackhat (2015)
as Carol Barrett
Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024)
as The Chameleon (voice)
Suicide Squad (2016)
as Amanda Waller
Ender's Game (2013)
as Major Gwen Anderson
Knight and Day (2010)
as CIA Director Isabel George
Eat Pray Love (2010)
as Delia Shiraz
Widows (2018)
as Veronica Rawlings
Traffic (2000)
as Social Worker
Syriana (2005)
as CIA Chairwoman
It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010)
as Eden Minerva
Air (2023)
as Deloris Jordan
Disturbia (2007)
as Detective Parker
The Woman King (2022)
as Nanisca
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)
as Abby Black
Fences (2016)
as Rose Maxson
G20 (2025)
as President Danielle Sutton
State of Play (2009)
as Dr. Judith Franklin
The Unforgivable (2021)
as Liz Ingram
Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005)
as Grandma
Doubt (2008)
as Mrs. Miller
Beautiful Creatures (2013)
as Amma Treadeau
Out of Sight (1998)
as Moselle
Custody (2016)
as Martha Schulman
Solaris (2002)
as Gordon
Far from Heaven (2002)
as Sybil
World Trade Center (2006)
as Mother in Hospital
Trust (2010)
as Gail Friedman
Dark Girls (2011)
as Self
Kate & Leopold (2001)
as Policewoman
Children of Blood and Bone (2027)
as Mama Agba
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020)
as Ma Rainey
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them (2014)
as Professor Lillian Friedman
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her (2014)
as Professor Lillian Friedman
Nights in Rodanthe (2008)
as Jean
Madea Goes to Jail (2009)
as Ellen
Get On Up (2014)
as Susie Brown
Jesse Stone: Night Passage (2006)
as Officer Molly Crane
Portrait of an Artist: Stephen Curry (2026)
as Self
W.E.B. Du Bois: Rebel With a Cause (2026)
as Narrator (voice)
Jesse Stone: Death in Paradise (2006)
as Molly Crane
The Pentagon Wars (1998)
as Sgt. Fanning
Stone Cold (2005)
as Molly Crane
Troop Zero (2019)
as Miss Rayleen
Won't Back Down (2012)
as Nona Alberts
Jesse Stone: Sea Change (2007)
as Molly Crane
Antwone Fisher (2002)
as Eva May
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him (2014)
as Professor Lillian Friedman
Beyond Boundaries: The Harvey Weinstein Scandal (2018)
as Self (archive footage)
Love, Marilyn (2013)
as Self
The Architect (2006)
as Tonya Neely
Lila & Eve (2015)
as Lila Walcott
Miss Apprehension and Squirt (1998)
as Sharon Hughes
Small Great Things (—)
Actor
The Substance of Fire (1996)
as Nurse
Live in Front of a Studio Audience: "All in the Family" and "Good Times" (2019)
as Florida Evans
The Shrink Is In (2001)
as Robin
The Best of The Tony Awards: The Plays (2006)
as Tonya (segment "King Hedley II")
Beyond All Boundaries (2009)
as Hortense Johnson
August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand (2015)
as Self
Predator or Prey: Making The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2024)
as Self
Grace & Glorie (1998)
as Rosemary Allbright
Giving Voice (2020)
as Self
Life Is Not a Fairytale: The Fantasia Barrino Story (2006)
as Diane Barrino
Amy & Isabelle (2001)
as Dottie
On Broadway (2019)
as Self (archive footage)
Ally Clark (—)
as Ally Clark
Oprah + Viola: A Netflix Special Event (2022)
as Self
Doubt: Stage to Screen (2009)
as Self
The Personal History of Rachel DuPree (—)
as Rachel Dupree
Operation Othello (—)
as Narrator
A Touch of Sugar (2019)
as Narrator
The Ebony Canal: A Story of Black Infant Mortality (2025)
as Narration
Two Butterflies (—)
Actor
I Almost Forgot About You (—)
as Dr. Georgia Young
House of Games (—)
Actor
Food 2050 (2022)
as Self - Narrator (voice)