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
Black Adam (2022)
as Amanda Waller (uncredited)
The Suicide Squad (2021)
as Amanda Waller
Prisoners (2013)
as Nancy Birch
Ocean's Eleven (2001)
as Parole Board Interrogator (voice) (uncredited)
The Help (2011)
as Aibileen Clark
Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024)
as The Chameleon (voice)
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023)
as Dr. Volumnia Gaul
Law Abiding Citizen (2009)
as Mayor April Henry
Suicide Squad (2016)
as Amanda Waller
Blackhat (2015)
as Carol Barrett
Knight and Day (2010)
as CIA Director Isabel George
Widows (2018)
as Veronica Rawlings
The Woman King (2022)
as Nanisca
Ender's Game (2013)
as Major Gwen Anderson
Disturbia (2007)
as Detective Parker
Air (2023)
as Deloris Jordan
Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005)
as Grandma
Traffic (2000)
as Social Worker
Beautiful Creatures (2013)
as Amma Treadeau
The Unforgivable (2021)
as Liz Ingram
Eat Pray Love (2010)
as Delia Shiraz
State of Play (2009)
as Dr. Judith Franklin
Syriana (2005)
as CIA Chairwoman
Out of Sight (1998)
as Moselle
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)
as Abby Black
G20 (2025)
as President Danielle Sutton
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020)
as Ma Rainey
It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010)
as Dr. Eden Minerva
Kate & Leopold (2001)
as Policewoman
Solaris (2002)
as Gordon
Fences (2016)
as Rose Maxson
Trust (2010)
as Gail Friedman
Doubt (2008)
as Mrs. Miller
World Trade Center (2006)
as Mother in Hospital
Get On Up (2014)
as Susie Brown
Nights in Rodanthe (2008)
as Jean
Children of Blood and Bone (2027)
as Mama Agba
Far from Heaven (2002)
as Sybil
Jesse Stone: Death in Paradise (2006)
as Molly Crane
Stone Cold (2005)
as Molly Crane
Jesse Stone: Sea Change (2007)
as Molly Crane
Jesse Stone: Night Passage (2006)
as Officer Molly Crane
Antwone Fisher (2002)
as Eva May
Madea Goes to Jail (2009)
as Ellen
Beyond Boundaries: The Harvey Weinstein Scandal (2018)
as Self (archive footage)
The Pentagon Wars (1998)
as Sgt. Fanning
Won't Back Down (2012)
as Nona Alberts
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her (2014)
as Professor Lillian Friedman
Troop Zero (2019)
as Miss Rayleen
Custody (2016)
as Martha Schulman
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them (2014)
as Professor Lillian Friedman
Beyond All Boundaries (2009)
as Hortense Johnson
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him (2014)
as Professor Lillian Friedman
The Architect (2006)
as Tonya Neely
Lila & Eve (2015)
as Lila Walcott
Love, Marilyn (2013)
as Self
Live in Front of a Studio Audience: "All in the Family" and "Good Times" (2019)
as Florida Evans
Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds (2017)
as Self (uncredited)
The Best of The Tony Awards: The Plays (2006)
as Tonya (segment "King Hedley II")
The Shrink Is In (2001)
as Robin
On Broadway (2019)
as Self (archive footage)
Grace & Glorie (1998)
as Rosemary Allbright
W.E.B. Du Bois: Rebel With a Cause (2026)
as Narrator (voice)
Amy & Isabelle (2001)
as Dottie
The Substance of Fire (1996)
as Nurse
Dark Girls (2011)
as Self
Giving Voice (2020)
as Self
Life Is Not a Fairytale: The Fantasia Barrino Story (2006)
as Diane Barrino
Small Great Things (—)
Actor
Operation Othello (2019)
as Narrator
Predator or Prey: Making The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2024)
as Self (Dr. Volumnia Gaul)
Doubt: Stage to Screen (2009)
as Self
The Ebony Canal: A Story of Black Infant Mortality (2025)
as Narration
The Personal History of Rachel DuPree (—)
as Rachel Dupree
August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand (2015)
as Self
Ally Clark (—)
as Ally Clark
House of Games (—)
Actor
Food 2050 (2022)
as Self - Narrator (voice)
Two Butterflies (—)
Actor
Oprah + Viola: A Netflix Special Event (2022)
as Self
Miss Apprehension and Squirt (1998)
as Sharon Hughes
I Almost Forgot About You (—)
as Dr. Georgia Young
A Touch of Sugar (2019)
as Narrator