VIOLA DAVIS

Acclaimed actress Viola Davis is the only African-American performer to win Tony, Oscar
and Emmy Awards. She is known for her award-winning performances in the television series 'How
to Get Away With Murder,' the Broadway productions of 'King Hedley II' and 'Fences' and its film
adaptation. Davis lives in Los Angeles with her husband, actor Julius Tennon. The couple adopted a
daughter, Genesis, in 2011. Born in South Carolina, Viola Davis grew up in Rhode Island, where
she began acting — first in high school, and then at Rhode Island College. After attending the
Juilliard School of Performing Arts, Davis made her Broadway debut in 1996 in Seven Guitars. She
has won Tony Awards for her performances in King Hedley II(2001)and a revival of August
Wilson's Fences(2010), which co-starred Denzel Washington. Her film work includes Doubt(2008),
for which she received an Oscar nomination,The Help(2011),Ender's Game(2013) and Get on Up
(2014). In 2015 she became the first African-American woman to win an Emmy for Outstanding
Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her work on the television series How to Get Away with Murder.
In 2008 Davis' career reached new heights with her nuanced performance in Doubt. She, once
again, made a tremendous impression with a small supporting role, and showed she could hold her
own against some of Hollywood's greatest talents. In the film, Davis played the mother of a boy
who may have been sexually assaulted by a priest at his Catholic school. She delivered an
especially strong performance, as her character clashes with the school's principal over her son and
the alleged crime. For her work, Davis received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting
Actress.
In 2011 Davis co-starred with Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain and Bryce
Dallas Howard in the film adaptation of the best-selling book The Help by Kathryn Stockett. This
1960s drama shows the racial divide between white housewives and their African-American
servants in a Southern town.
In the film, Davis plays Ailbileen, a maid who is interviewed by a young white writer named
Skeeter for a book about the lives of "the help." The experiences of her character are familiar to
Davis. "The women in this story were like my mother, my grandmother," she explained to Variety.
"Women born and raised in the Deep South, working in tobacco and cotton fields, taking care of
their kids and other people's kids, cleaning homes." Davis worked with the director and screenwriter
Tate Taylor to refine her character, making sure that her responses and actions were believable.
Because racial tensions were so high during the time that the film is set in, she believed her
character would have been afraid of saying too much to anyone. Davis played Aibileen with great
restraint and won extensive praise for her work on the film.However, during an interview with the
New York Times in September 2018, Davis expressed regret for having participated in the film

As an African-American actress, Davis continues to look for more meaningful roles and
perhaps start up some projects of her own. "It is a time when Black women now have no choice but
to take matters in their own hands and create images for ourselves ... It's up to us to look for the
material, it's up to us to produce it ourselves, it's up to us to choose the stories."

In 2017 Davis received her first Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in
Fences. In her powerful acceptance speech, Davis spoke about portraying "ordinary people" and
their human experience. “You know, there is one place that all the people with the greatest potential
are gathered and that’s the graveyard,” she said. “People ask me all the time — what kind of stories
do you want to tell, Viola? And I say exhume those bodies. Exhume those stories — the stories of
the people who dreamed big and never saw those dreams to fruition, people who fell in love and
lost.” “I became an artist and thank God I did,” she continued “because we are the only profession
that celebrates what it means to live a life.”