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Audra McDonald
Audra Ann McDonald (born July 3, 1970) is an American singer and actress. Primarily known for her work on the Broadway stage, she has won six Tony Awards, more performance wins than any other actor, and is the only person to win in all four acting categories. As of the 78th Tony Awards, she has earned a record-breaking eleven nominations.
In addition to her six Tony Awards, she has received numerous accolades including two Grammy Awards and an Emmy Award. She was honored with the National Medal of Arts in 2016 from President Barack Obama, and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2017.
She has performed in musicals, operas, and dramas. She has received six Tony Awards for her roles in Carousel (1994), Master Class (1996), Ragtime (1998), A Raisin in the Sun (2004), Porgy and Bess (2012), and Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill (2014). Her other Tony-nominated roles were in Marie Christine (2000), 110 in the Shade (2007), Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (2020), Ohio State Murders (2023), and Gypsy (2025).
On television, she portrayed Dr. Naomi Bennett in the ABC series Private Practice from 2007 to 2011, and Liz Lawrence in The Good Wife and its spinoff series The Good Fight. She received Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her roles in Wit (2001), A Raisin in the Sun (2008), and Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill (2016). She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class Program for hosting Live from Lincoln Center (2015). On film, she has acted in Ricki and the Flash (2015), Beauty and the Beast (2017), Respect (2021), and Rustin (2023).
As a classical soprano, she has performed in staged operas with the Houston Grand Opera and the Los Angeles Opera, and in concerts with symphony orchestras like the Berlin Philharmonic and New York Philharmonic. Her recording of Kurt Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (2008) with the Los Angeles Opera won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Album and the Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. She maintains an active concert and recording career throughout the United States performing genres ranging from jazz standards to musical theatre.
Audra McDonald was born in West Berlin, West Germany, the daughter of American parents, Anna Kathryn (Jones), a university administrator, and Stanley James McDonald Jr., a high school principal. At the time of her birth, her father was stationed with the United States Army. McDonald was raised in her father's native Fresno, California, the elder of two daughters; her sister, Alison, writes and directs for television and film. McDonald graduated from the Roosevelt School of the Arts program within Theodore Roosevelt High School in Fresno.
She got her start in acting with Dan Pessano and Roger Rocka's Good Company Players, beginning in their junior company. In a feature article about her written when she was a child, she said that she knew she wanted to be involved in theater "when I had my first chance to perform with the Good Company Players Junior Company". She also said that the people who have had the most impact on her life are "Good Company director Dan Pessano and my mother". She studied classical voice as an undergraduate under Ellen Faull at the Juilliard School, graduating in 1993.
McDonald made her Broadway debut as a replacement portraying Ayah in the musical The Secret Garden in from 1992 to 1993. For her role as Carrie Pipperidge in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel (1994), she won her first Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. The following year she played Sharon Graham in the Terrence McNally play Master Class (1995) earning her second Tony Award, this time for Best Featured Actress in a Play. Between 1996 and 1998 she played Sarah in the musical Ragtime, first at the Ford Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto, from December 1996 to August 1997, and then at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts in New York from December 1997 to December 1998. For her performance in Ragtime, which had a book written by McNally, McDonald won her third Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. In 1999 she played Marie Christine L'Adrese in the musical Marie Christine on Broadway and The Beggar Woman in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center.
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Audra McDonald
Audra Ann McDonald (born July 3, 1970) is an American singer and actress. Primarily known for her work on the Broadway stage, she has won six Tony Awards, more performance wins than any other actor, and is the only person to win in all four acting categories. As of the 78th Tony Awards, she has earned a record-breaking eleven nominations.
In addition to her six Tony Awards, she has received numerous accolades including two Grammy Awards and an Emmy Award. She was honored with the National Medal of Arts in 2016 from President Barack Obama, and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2017.
She has performed in musicals, operas, and dramas. She has received six Tony Awards for her roles in Carousel (1994), Master Class (1996), Ragtime (1998), A Raisin in the Sun (2004), Porgy and Bess (2012), and Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill (2014). Her other Tony-nominated roles were in Marie Christine (2000), 110 in the Shade (2007), Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (2020), Ohio State Murders (2023), and Gypsy (2025).
On television, she portrayed Dr. Naomi Bennett in the ABC series Private Practice from 2007 to 2011, and Liz Lawrence in The Good Wife and its spinoff series The Good Fight. She received Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her roles in Wit (2001), A Raisin in the Sun (2008), and Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill (2016). She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class Program for hosting Live from Lincoln Center (2015). On film, she has acted in Ricki and the Flash (2015), Beauty and the Beast (2017), Respect (2021), and Rustin (2023).
As a classical soprano, she has performed in staged operas with the Houston Grand Opera and the Los Angeles Opera, and in concerts with symphony orchestras like the Berlin Philharmonic and New York Philharmonic. Her recording of Kurt Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (2008) with the Los Angeles Opera won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Album and the Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. She maintains an active concert and recording career throughout the United States performing genres ranging from jazz standards to musical theatre.
Audra McDonald was born in West Berlin, West Germany, the daughter of American parents, Anna Kathryn (Jones), a university administrator, and Stanley James McDonald Jr., a high school principal. At the time of her birth, her father was stationed with the United States Army. McDonald was raised in her father's native Fresno, California, the elder of two daughters; her sister, Alison, writes and directs for television and film. McDonald graduated from the Roosevelt School of the Arts program within Theodore Roosevelt High School in Fresno.
She got her start in acting with Dan Pessano and Roger Rocka's Good Company Players, beginning in their junior company. In a feature article about her written when she was a child, she said that she knew she wanted to be involved in theater "when I had my first chance to perform with the Good Company Players Junior Company". She also said that the people who have had the most impact on her life are "Good Company director Dan Pessano and my mother". She studied classical voice as an undergraduate under Ellen Faull at the Juilliard School, graduating in 1993.
McDonald made her Broadway debut as a replacement portraying Ayah in the musical The Secret Garden in from 1992 to 1993. For her role as Carrie Pipperidge in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel (1994), she won her first Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. The following year she played Sharon Graham in the Terrence McNally play Master Class (1995) earning her second Tony Award, this time for Best Featured Actress in a Play. Between 1996 and 1998 she played Sarah in the musical Ragtime, first at the Ford Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto, from December 1996 to August 1997, and then at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts in New York from December 1997 to December 1998. For her performance in Ragtime, which had a book written by McNally, McDonald won her third Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. In 1999 she played Marie Christine L'Adrese in the musical Marie Christine on Broadway and The Beggar Woman in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center.
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