Viola Davis
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.
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Acted in
Children of Blood and Bone
2027
as Mama Agba
G20
2025
as Danielle Sutton
Number One on the Call Sheet
2025
as Self
Creature Commandos
2024
as Amanda Waller (voice)
Kung Fu Panda 4
2024
as The Chameleon (voice)
Predator or Prey: Making The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
2024
as Self (Dr. Volumnia Gaul)
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
2023
as Dr. Volumnia Gaul
Air
2023
as Deloris Jordan
Black Adam
2022
as Amanda Waller (uncredited)
The Woman King
2022
as Nanisca
Oprah + Viola: A Netflix Special Event
2022
as Self
The First Lady
2022
as Michelle Obama
Peacemaker
2022
as Amanda Waller (uncredited)
The Unforgivable
2021
as Liz Ingram
The Suicide Squad
2021
as Amanda Waller
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
2020
as Ma Rainey
Dear...
2020
as Self
Celebrity IOU
2020
as Self
Giving Voice
2020
as Self
Live in Front of a Studio Audience: "All in the Family" and "Good Times"
2019
as Florida Evans
On Broadway
2019
as Self (archive footage)
A Touch of Sugar
2019
as Narrator
Troop Zero
2019
as Miss Rayleen
Widows
2018
as Veronica Rawlings
Beyond Boundaries: The Harvey Weinstein Scandal
2018
as Self (archive footage)
Fences
2016
as Rose Maxson
Suicide Squad
2016
as Amanda Waller
Custody
2016
as Martha Schulman
Lila & Eve
2015
as Lila Walcott
August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand
2015
as Self
Blackhat
2015
as Carol Barrett
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her
2014
as Professor Lillian Friedman
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him
2014
as Professor Lillian Friedman
How to Get Away with Murder
2014
as Annalise Keating
Get on Up
2014
as Susie Brown
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them
2014
as Professor Lillian Friedman
Ender's Game
2013
as Major Gwen Anderson
Prisoners
2013
as Nancy Birch
Love, Marilyn
2013
as Self
Beautiful Creatures
2013
as Amma Treadeau
Sofia the First
2013
as Helen Hanshaw (voice)
Won't Back Down
2012
as Nona Alberts
Scandal
2012
as Annalise Keating
Honest Trailers
2012
as Dr. Volumnia Gaul (archive footage)
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
2011
as Abby Black
Touch of Evil
2011
as The Vengeful Caretaker
The Help
2011
as Aibileen Clark
It's Kind of a Funny Story
2010
as Dr. Eden Minerva
Trust
2010
as Gail Friedman
Eat Pray Love
2010
as Delia Shiraz
Knight and Day
2010
as CIA Director Isabel George
Beyond All Boundaries
2009
as Hortense Johnson
Law Abiding Citizen
2009
as Mayor April Henry
State of Play
2009
as Dr. Judith Franklin
Doubt: Stage to Screen
2009
as Self
Madea Goes to Jail
2009
as Ellen
United States of Tara
2009
Doubt
2008
as Mrs. Miller
Nights in Rodanthe
2008
as Jean
The Andromeda Strain
2008
as Dr. Charlene Barton
Jesse Stone: Sea Change
2007
as Molly Crane
Traveler
2007
as Agent Jan Marlow
Disturbia
2007
as Detective Parker
The Architect
2006
as Tonya Neely
Brothers and Sisters
2006
as Ellen Snyder
Life Is Not a Fairytale: The Fantasia Barrino Story
2006
as Diane Barrino
World Trade Center
2006
as Mother in Hospital with Donna
The Best of The Tony Awards: The Plays
2006
as Tonya (segment "King Hedley II")
Jesse Stone: Death in Paradise
2006
as Molly Crane
Jesse Stone: Night Passage
2006
as Officer Molly Crane
Syriana
2005
as CIA Chairwoman
Get Rich or Die Tryin'
2005
as Grandma
Threshold
2005
Stone Cold
2005
as Molly Crane
Century City
2004
Antwone Fisher
2002
as Eva May
Solaris
2002
as Gordon
Far from Heaven
2002
as Sybil
Hack
2002
as Stevie Morgan
Without a Trace
2002
as Audrey Williams
Kate & Leopold
2001
as Policewoman
Ocean's Eleven
2001
as Parole Board Interrogator (voice) (uncredited)
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
2001
as Sergeant Terry Randolph
The Shrink Is In
2001
as Robin
Amy & Isabelle
2001
as Dottie
The Division
2001
Traffic
2000
as Social Worker
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
2000
as Attorney Campbell
City of Angels
2000
as Lynnette Peeler
Third Watch
1999
as Margo Rodriguez
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
1999
as Donna Emmett
Judging Amy
1999
as Celeste
Providence
1999
as Dr. Eleanor Weiss
Grace & Glorie
1998
as Rosemary Allbright
Out of Sight
1998
as Moselle
The Pentagon Wars
1998
as Sgt. Fanning
Miss Apprehension and Squirt
1998
as Sharon Hughes
The Practice
1997
as Aisha Crenshaw
The Substance of Fire
1996
as Nurse
NYPD Blue
1993
as Woman
Tony Awards
1956
as Self - Presenter
The Oscars
1953
as Self
Hallmark Hall of Fame
1951
as Rosemary Allbright
Operation Othello
as Narrator
Two Butterflies
I Almost Forgot About You
as Dr. Georgia Young
Small Great Things
The Personal History of Rachel DuPree
as Rachel Dupree
Waller
as Amanda Waller