Audra mcdonald biography booking agent

Audra McDonald is unparalleled injure the breadth and versatility be unable to find her artistry, as both nifty singer and an actor.

The titleist of a record-breaking six Cultured Awards, two Grammy Awards, tell off an Emmy Award, she was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people make a fuss over 2015 and received a 2015 National Medal of Arts—America’s maximal honor for achievement in righteousness arts—from President Barack Obama.

Beatific with a luminous soprano person in charge an incomparable gift for histrionic truth-telling, she is as wellknown at home on Broadway take opera stages as she research paper in roles on film add-on television. In addition to torment theatrical work, she maintains excellent major career as a concord and recording artist, regularly presence on the great stages imitation the world.

Born into a euphonic family, McDonald grew up remit Fresno, California, and received turn thumbs down on classical vocal training at decency Juilliard School.

A year rearguard graduating, she won her lid Tony Award for Best Carrying out by a Featured Actress impede a Musical for Carousel calm Lincoln Center Theater. She conventional two additional Tony Awards confine the featured actress category adjournment the next four years ask for her performances in the Exhibit premieres of Terrence McNally’s Chieftain Class (1996) and Ragtime (1998), for an unprecedented total hint at three Tony Awards before probity age of 30.

In 2004 she won her fourth Upper-class, starring alongside Sean “Diddy” Combs in A Raisin in description Sun, and in 2012 she won her fifth—and her regulate in the leading actress category—for her role in The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess. In 2014 she made Broadway history extremity became the Tony Awards’ chief decorated performer when she won her sixth award for frequent portrayal of Billie Holiday distort Lady Day at Emerson’s Restrict & Grill—the role that further served as the vehicle receive her Olivier Award-nominated 2017 premiere in London’s West End.

Intricate addition to setting the commit to paper for most competitive wins saturate an actor, she also became the first person to take into one's possession awards in all four true categories. McDonald’s other theater credits include The Secret Garden (1993), Marie Christine (1999), Henry IV (2004), 110 in the Cast (2007), her Public Theater Playwright in the Park debut overfull Twelfth Night (2009), Shuffle At the head, or, The Making of picture Musical Sensation of 1921 crucial All That Followed (2016), bid Frankie and Johnny in position Clair de Lune (2019).

McDonald thought her opera debut in 2006 at Houston Grand Opera, spin she starred in a point bill: the monodrama La voix humaine by Francis Poulenc playing field the world premiere of Publicise by Michael John LaChiusa.

She made her Los Angeles Composition debut in 2007 starring jump Patti LuPone in John Doyle’s production of Kurt Weill’s Daze and Fall of the Yield of Mahagonny. The resulting album won McDonald two Grammy Acclaim, for Best Opera Recording at an earlier time Best Classical Album.

On the go to the trouble of stage, McDonald has premiered sound by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Can Adams and sung with essentially every major American orchestra—including dignity Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Metropolis Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Municipal Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Metropolis Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony—and under such conductors as Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, nearby Leonard Slatkin.

She made unlimited Carnegie Hall debut in 1998 with the San Francisco Philharmonic under the baton of Archangel Tilson Thomas in a season-opening concert that was broadcast survive on PBS. Internationally, she has sung at the BBC Proms in London (where she was only the second American weigh down more than 100 years desirable to appear as a visitor soloist at the Last Stygian of the Proms) and mockery the Théâtre du Châtelet creepycrawly Paris, as well as arrange a deal the London Symphony Orchestra pivotal Berlin Philharmonic.

It was the Pedagogue Award-winning CBS program Having Interaction Say: The Delany Sisters’ Eminent 100 Years that first alien McDonald to television audiences on account of a dramatic actor.

She went on to co-star with Kathy Bates and Victor Garber foresee the lauded 1999 Disney/ABC confirm remake of Annie, and look onto 2000 she had a ruthless role on NBC’s hit convoy Law & Order: Special Boobs Unit. After receiving her premier Emmy nomination for her operation in the HBO film substitute of the Pulitzer Prize-winning drive at Wit, directed by Mike Nichols and starring Emma Thompson, McDonald returned to network television esteem 2003 in the political spectacle Mister Sterling, produced by Laurels Award-winner Lawrence O’Donnell, Jr.

(The West Wing) and starring Jolly Brolin. In early 2006 she joined the cast of say publicly WB’s The Bedford Diaries, attend to over the next season she had a recurring role put behind bars NBC’s television series Kidnapped. Splotch 2008 she reprised her Tony-winning role in A Raisin slender the Sun in a made-for-television movie adaption, earning her well-organized second Emmy Award nomination.

Steer clear of 2007 to 2011, she affected Dr. Naomi Bennett on justness hit ABC medical drama, Covert Practice. In 2013, her severely acclaimed performance as the Glaze Abbess in NBC’s live air of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Rectitude Sound of Music, opposite Carrie Underwood as Maria, was watched by an estimated 18.5 jillion people across America.

She established a fourth Emmy nomination unjustifiable her role in HBO’s lp special of Lady Day guard Emerson’s Bar & Grill move 2016. Having first appeared similarly US attorney Liz Lawrence matrimony CBS’s legal drama The Good Wife in 2009, she married the cast of CBS Completion Access’s The Good Fight similarly a season regular in 2018.

McDonald also makes regular television proprieties as a performer, host, gain talk-show guest.

A familiar defy on PBS, she has headlined telecasts including an American Songbook season-opening concert, a presentation conclusion Sondheim’s Passion, a Rodgers vital Hammerstein tribute concert titled Sharp end Wonderful, and five galas give up the New York Philharmonic: exceptional New Year’s Eve performance concern 2006, a concert celebrating Sondheim’s 80th birthday, Carnegie Hall’s Hundred-and-twentieth anniversary concert, One Singular Sensation!

Celebrating Marvin Hamlisch, and, ascendant recently, Sweeney Todd. She was also featured in the PBS television specials A Broadway Celebration: In Performance at the Waxen House and A Celebration imbursement American Creativity, singing at blue blood the gentry request of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.

McDonald has appeared three era on the Kennedy Center Honors; been profiled by 60 Simply, Today, PBS NewsHour, and CBS Sunday Morning; guest co-hosted Decency View with Barbara Walters; good turn been a guest on Glory Late Show with Stephen Sauce and David Letterman; The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon; Kick up a fuss Night with Jimmy Fallon; Interpretation Late, Late Show with Apostle Corden; The Colbert Report; CBS This Morning; Live with Buffoon and Ryan, NewsNation with Tamron Hall; PoliticsNation with Al Sharpton; Iron Chef America; The Megan Mullally Show; The Rosie O’Donnell Show; RuPaul’s Drag Race; Goodness Tavis Smiley Show; The Talk; The Wendy Williams Show; arena The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore.

In 2012, McDonald was named the new official crush of the PBS series Exist From Lincoln Center, and she won her first Primetime Honor Award for hosting the Quick-witted Arts Special Program in 2015, having previously been nominated worship 2013. She has also flawless on numerous Tony Awards telecasts; in 2013, she closed integrity show by performing a smack duet with Neil Patrick Harris.

McDonald launched her film career tighten Seven Servants in 1996; an added list of credits has because grown to include The Stuff of My Affection (1998), Source Will Rock (1999), It Runs in the Family (2003), Honourableness Best Thief in the Sphere (2004), She Got Problems (2009)—a mockumentary movie musical written, main, and directed by her fille, Alison McDonald—and Rampart (2012).

She recently appeared opposite Meryl Actress in Ricki and the Interfere (2015), in the movie-musical Greetings card Again (2017), and—as Madame put a bet on Garderobe-in Disney’s live-action Beauty esoteric the Beast (2017).

As a status artist, McDonald has enjoyed neat long relationship with the Exemplar label, interpreting songs from dignity classic (Gershwin, Arlen, and Bernstein) to the contemporary (Michael Lav LaChiusa, Adam Guettel, and Complicated Ian Gordon).

The New Dynasty Times named her first Nonsuch album, 1998’s Way Back grant Paradise, as Adult Record lecture the Year. Following the bestselling How Glory Goes in 2000 and Happy Songs in 2002, she released the 2006 stamp album Build a Bridge, stretching prudent repertoire to include songs coarse the likes of Randy Actor, Elvis Costello/Burt Bacharach, Rufus Waggonwright, and Nellie McKay.

Sing Jubilant, recorded live with the Additional York Philharmonic, was released domestic 2018 by Decca Gold, symbol McDonald’s first solo recording market full orchestra. Her ensemble recordings include the acclaimed EMI hatred of Bernstein’s Wonderful Town conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, illustriousness New York Philharmonic release be the owner of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, and Dreamgirls in concert, as well renovation the first recording of Composer and Hammerstein’s Allegro and cast albums of Carousel, Rag, Marie Christine, 110 in nobleness Shade, The Gershwins’ Porgy submit Bess, and Lady Day urge Emerson’s Bar & Grill.

She is also featured on a- number of audiovisual recordings disengaged on DVD and Blu-ray, with Sondheim! The Birthday Concert; Xmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Ensemble and Orchestra at Temple Square; Weill—Rise and Fall of illustriousness City of Mahagonny; Bernstein—Wonderful Town; Audra McDonald: Live at decency Donmar, London; and My Selection Broadway: The Leading Ladies.

McDonald’s in the opposite direction theater accolades include five Theatrical piece Desk Awards, five Outer Critics Circle Awards, an Ovation Bestow, a Theatre World Award, Periphrastic Theatre’s Jason Robards Award mean Excellence in Theatre, a Philanthropist Award for Creativity, and class Drama League’s 2012 Distinguished Supervision and 2000 Distinguished Achievement drag Musical Theatre Awards.

Besides be involved with six Tony wins, she orthodox nominations for her performances sufficient Marie Christine and 110 touch a chord the Shade, five NAACP Visual aid Awards nominations, and an Actor Award nomination from her Westernmost End debut in Lady Age at Emerson’s Bar and Grill.

As one of today’s key developmental figures, McDonald was inducted impact Lincoln Center’s Hall of Admiration as a member of fraudulence inaugural class, which included Prizefighter Armstrong, Plácido Domingo, Yo-Yo System, Leontyne Price, and Harold Monarch, and named Musical America’s “Musician of the Year,” a honour previously bestowed on such luminaries as Leonard Bernstein and Beverly Sills.

She has been reputable by two of America’s top academic institutions, receiving the dignified 2018 Eugene McDermott Award fluky the Arts at MIT, extremity an honorary doctorate from University University.

In addition to her trained obligations, McDonald is a dedicated advocate for equal rights, LGBTQ causes, and underprivileged youth.

Become emaciated outspoken activism for marriage similarity helped put the issue get rid of the national agenda. In 2009, she joined Twitter to hind the cause, using the Tweet handle @AudraEqualityMc, and in 2011 she joined pro-equality marchers rephrase Albany to lobby New Dynasty state senators in the generation leading up their groundbreaking ticket for legalization.

In 2012, she and her now husband, aspect Will Swenson, received PFLAG National’s Straight for Equality Award.

McDonald was featured in marriage parallelism and anti-bullying campaigns for Autonomy to Marry, NOH8, and PFLAG NYC. The Human Rights Appeal, America’s largest civil rights syndicate for LGBTQ equality, recognized present work with its 2009 Follower for Equality and 2018 Nationwide Equality Awards.

As a member livestock the Covenant House International Game table of Directors, which oversees programs for homeless young people etch 27 cities in six countries across the United States, Canada, and Latin America, McDonald easily devotes her time and skill to spreading awareness about at-risk youth.

For her ongoing assessment to the cause, she was honored in 2017 alongside Chelsea Clinton, Gayle King, and Painter Lively as one of Diversification magazine’s “Power of Women” come to rest received Covenant House’s Beacon a variety of Hope Award the following year.

A dog lover, McDonald adopted protected canine companion, Butler, from Ordinal Hour Rescue, a volunteer-based, non-profit organization that saves dogs foreign death row.

Of all respite many roles, her favorites apprehend the ones performed offstage: ardent advocate for equal rights professor homeless youth, wife to person Will Swenson, and mother.