Viola Davis is a critically revered, award-winning actress, producer, and New York Times Best-Selling Author. She is the first black actress to win two Tony Awards (“Fences” & “King Hedley II”), an Oscar (“Fences”), and an Emmy (“How to Get Away with Murder”). Davis was most recently seen starring in “The Woman King,” which she also produced.
Here is the story of Viola Davis:
The life into which she was born was hardly one of abundant promise. Viola Davis (born August 11th, 1965 in Saint Matthews, South Carolina) is the second-youngest of six siblings. Her father was a horse groomer and her mother a maid. As a young child, she often went hungry. Even though her parents were hard-working and received a welfare check, what money there was always gone after a few days. Growing up and experiencing the reality of abject poverty as a child in Central Falls, Rhode Island, Viola Davis took this life experience as motivation to build a better life. She was inspired by many actresses, especially by the role of Cicely Tyson in The Autobiography of Miss Pittman – (with whom she later shared the screen).
Davis attended Rhode Island College in Providence in 1988 on a full scholarship and majored in theatre. She later graduated from the prestigious Julliard School of Art in New York City after four years of study.
Every stage of her career brought “another barrier and another dragon to slay” as she puts it. Her small screen starting point was a one-day appearance in The Substance of Fire (1996), playing a nurse and earning $518. Davis started her TV acting career in 1996, starring in an episode of the popular cop show NYPD Blue. However, it wasn’t until four years later that Davis got her first taste of fame, playing Nurse Lynnette Peeler in the TV series City of Angels. In 2001, she played the character Tonya in King Hedley II, for which she won a Tony and a Drama Desk Award. In 2004, she won another Drama Desk Award for her work in the off-Broadway production of Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage.
Shortly after her first appearance In the Substance of Fire Davis appeared in many TV films and TV shows, including an adaptation of the Broadway play Doubt in 2008. For her performance as Mrs. Miller, she was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In 2008, Viola Davis was inducted into The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. And the awards just kept coming.
In her most recent acting roles, Viola Davis has gone the extra mile. “Find out what gets you up in the morning,” Davis said. “It’s (more) important to find your bliss, your passion than to settle into something.” To date the actress has 83 wins and 108 nominations for awards.
How to Get Away with Murder (2014 – present): starring as the lead, a professor Annalise Keating, who is ambitious, intelligent and flawed. For her role in the series, she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series – the first black women to win the award. Winning also not one, but two consecutive Screen Actor Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series in 2015 and 2016.
The Help (2011): Playing the role of Ailbileen, a maid working for a white family. In an interview in Variety, the actress notes “The women in this story were like my mother, my grandmother.” She continues “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.” Viola worked with the director and screenwriter Tate Taylor to refine her character and was nominated for an Academy Award in Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role – first black women to be nominated for this award.
Fences (2016): Davis began 2017 by taking the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress. She also won an Oscar for the same role. Fences is a movie about bitterness and regret. Viola played the role of Rose, the anxious wife of Denzel Washington’s character Troy Maxson.
Viola Davis is an inspiration as she let her past drive her future and success through determination and focus. Also, the actress is a model for people who strive for significance, and not just success, as she has been determined throughout her career to make an impact. “You can be anything you want to be,” is Viola’s signature mantra.
In 2003, Viola Davis married fellow actor Julius Tennon. In 2012, the couple founded JuVee Productions a production company that develops independent films, television, theater, and digital content across all platforms. JuVee recently raised $250 million to globally expand the brand for development and distribution of diverse and inclusive content.
Davis is also an ambassador for Hunger Is, a joint charitable initiative between Albertsons Foundation and the Entertainment Industry Foundation aimed at eradicating childhood hunger in America. After experiencing being one of the one in five American kids who struggled with hunger, she has actively been engaged in combatting this issue, raising over $12.5 million in the last three years alone through the organization. In participating in these programs, she has been able to reach her dreams and goals. Indeed, it has brought healing to her own life to help those kids that are today struggling with child hunger.
After receiving her Oscar Award earlier this year, Davis revealed she had been struggling with something called ‘imposter syndrome’. This syndrome is a concept psychologist describe as feeling a sense of hypocrisy and fraud despite evidence of high achievement. Today, many A-listers form Hollywood have spoken out having the similar syndrome. Some researchers estimate at least 70 percent of people will experience this imposter phenomenon and some believe it affects more women than men.
Viola says: “I know I’m not the best but I’m proud of myself. This is the first year I’ve allowed myself just a little bit to see that, to realize that self-deprecation is not the answer to humility. That sometimes you can say ‘I deserve it’ that ‘I’m proud of myself’ and move on.” The actress’ Ah-ha moment was when she realized that the trauma never goes away, but that through acting, she could release the anguish, rather than hide it. Through her hard work in the industry, Davis brings this spirit to every role she plays.
Viola Davis has drawn praise for her motivational and inspirational speeches. After making history by becoming the first black women to win an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in Drama and winning Best Supporting Actress in a Supporting Role at the Oscars 2017, Viola made a speech that was so powerful, gracious, moving and beautiful, that when she’d finished, host Jimmy Kimmel said, “I don’t know if anyone’s going to be able to make a speech after that.”
When Glamour Magazine named her Film Actress of the Year in 2012, she told the publication that only now has she begun the healing process of what she went through in her life.
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