Viola Davis
81 movies · 30 TV shows
- Known for
- Acting
- Born
- Aug 11, 1965 (age 61)
- Place of birth
- St. Matthews, South Carolina, USA
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).
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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.
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Known for
Viola Davis: movies and TV shows
Acting (100)
- Upcoming Children of Blood and Bone
as Mama Agba
- Upcoming Operation Othello
as Narrator
- Upcoming
- Upcoming I Almost Forgot About You
as Dr. Georgia Young
- Upcoming
- Upcoming The Personal History of Rachel DuPree
as Rachel Dupree
- Upcoming Ally Clark
as Ally Clark
- Upcoming
- Upcoming
- 2026 W.E.B. Du Bois: Rebel With a Cause
as Narrator (voice)
- 2025 G20
as President Danielle Sutton
- 2025 The Ebony Canal: A Story of Black Infant Mortality
as Narration
- 2024
- 2024 Kung Fu Panda 4
as The Chameleon (voice)
- 2023 The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
as Dr. Volumnia Gaul
- 2023 Air
as Deloris Jordan
- 2022 Black Adam
as Amanda Waller (uncredited)
- 2022 The Woman King
as Nanisca
- 2022
- 2022
- 2021 The Unforgivable
as Liz Ingram
- 2021 The Suicide Squad
as Amanda Waller
- 2020 Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
as Ma Rainey
- 2019
- 2019 A Touch of Sugar
as Narrator
- 2019 Troop Zero
as Miss Rayleen
- 2018 Widows
as Veronica Rawlings
- 2016 Fences
as Rose Maxson
- 2016 Suicide Squad
as Amanda Waller
- 2016 Custody
as Martha Schulman
- 2015 Lila & Eve
as Lila Walcott
- 2015 Blackhat
as Carol Barrett
- 2014 The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her
as Professor Lillian Friedman
- 2014 The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him
as Professor Lillian Friedman
- 2014
- 2014 Get On Up
as Susie Brown
- 2014 The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them
as Professor Lillian Friedman
- 2013 Ender's Game
as Major Gwen Anderson
- 2013 Prisoners
as Nancy Birch
- 2013 Beautiful Creatures
as Amma Treadeau
- 2013
- 2012 Won't Back Down
as Nona Alberts
- 2012
- 2011 Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
as Abby Black
- 2011 The Help
as Aibileen Clark
- 2010 It's Kind of a Funny Story
as Eden Minerva
- 2010 Trust
as Gail Friedman
- 2010 Eat Pray Love
as Delia Shiraz
- 2010 Knight and Day
as CIA Director Isabel George
- 2009 Beyond All Boundaries
as Hortense Johnson
- 2009 Law Abiding Citizen
as Mayor April Henry
- 2009 State of Play
as Dr. Judith Franklin
- 2009 Madea Goes to Jail
as Ellen
- 2009
- 2008 Doubt
as Mrs. Miller
- 2008 Nights in Rodanthe
as Jean
- 2008
- 2007 Jesse Stone: Sea Change
as Molly Crane
- 2007
- 2007 Disturbia
as Detective Parker
- 2006 The Architect
as Tonya Neely
- 2006
- 2006 Life Is Not a Fairytale: The Fantasia Barrino Story
as Diane Barrino
- 2006 World Trade Center
as Mother in Hospital
- 2006 The Best of The Tony Awards: The Plays
as Tonya (segment "King Hedley II")
- 2006 Jesse Stone: Death in Paradise
as Molly Crane
- 2006 Jesse Stone: Night Passage
as Officer Molly Crane
- 2005 Syriana
as CIA Chairwoman
- 2005 Get Rich or Die Tryin'
as Grandma
- 2005
- 2005 Stone Cold
as Molly Crane
- 2004
- 2002 Antwone Fisher
as Eva May
- 2002 Solaris
as Gordon
- 2002 Far from Heaven
as Sybil
- 2002
- 2002
- 2001 Kate & Leopold
as Policewoman
- 2001 Ocean's Eleven
as Parole Board Interrogator (voice) (uncredited)
- 2001
- 2001
- 2001 The Shrink Is In
as Robin
- 2001 Amy & Isabelle
as Dottie
- 2001
- 2000 Traffic
as Social Worker
- 2000
- 2000
- 1999
- 1999
- 1999
- 1999
- 1998 Grace & Glorie
as Rosemary Allbright
- 1998 Out of Sight
as Moselle
- 1998 The Pentagon Wars
as Sgt. Fanning
- 1998 Miss Apprehension and Squirt
as Sharon Hughes
- 1997
- 1996 The Substance of Fire
as Nurse
- 1993
- 1989
- 1951
Behind the camera (21)
- Upcoming Operation Othello
Executive Producer
- Upcoming Ally Clark
Producer
- Upcoming House of Games
Producer
- Upcoming Mfinda
Executive Producer
- Upcoming Black Boys Don't Sew
Executive Producer
- Upcoming The Untamed: A Sinner's Prayer
Producer
- Upcoming A Menina Que Voa
Production Accountant
- Upcoming
- 2026 The Color of Cola
Executive Producer
- 2025 ASALI: Power of the Pollinators
Executive Producer
- 2025 G20
Producer
- 2025
- 2023 Silver Dollar Road
Executive Producer
- 2022 The Woman King
Producer
- 2022
- 2019
- 2019 Emanuel
Executive Producer
- 2019 Troop Zero
Producer
- 2018
- 2017 Night Shift
Executive Producer
- 2014
Talk shows and appearances (40)
- 2026
- 2025 Good Hang with Amy Poehler
1 episode
- 2024 Hollywood Black
4 episodes
- 2024
- 2024 Hot Ones Versus
1 episode
- 2022
- 2022 The Jennifer Hudson Show
3 episodes
- 2022
- 2021 C ce soir
1 episode
- 2020 Dear...
1 episode
- 2020 Celebrity IOU
1 episode
- 2020
- 2019
- 2019 The Kelly Clarkson Show
2 episodes
- 2018
- 2015 The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
2 episodes
- 2015 Close Up with The Hollywood Reporter
1 episode
- 2015 Hot Ones
1 episode
- 2015
- 2014 Variety Studio: Actors on Actors
4 episodes
- 2014 Late Night with Seth Meyers
1 episode
- 2014 The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
5 episodes
- 2013
- 2011
- 2009 Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen
1 episode
- 2009
- 2007 The Graham Norton Show
1 episode
- 2003 The Ellen DeGeneres Show
1 episode
- 2003 Jimmy Kimmel Live!
5 episodes
- 2002 Live from E!
1 episode
- 1997 The View
4 episodes
- 1996 Access Hollywood
1 episode
- 1995 The Actor Awards Presented by SAG-AFTRA
1 episode
- 1992 The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
1 episode
- 1979 CBS News Sunday Morning
1 episode
- 1968 60 Minutes
1 episode
- 1959 The Grammys
1 episode
- 1956 Tony Awards
1 episode
- 1953 The Oscars
1 episode
- 1944 Golden Globe Awards
2 episodes