Biography
Audra Ann McDonald is an American actress and singer. She was born on 3 July 1970 in Berlin, Germany, and grew up in Fresno, California. She trained in classical voice at the Juilliard School, graduating in 1993.
McDonald is best known for her work on the Broadway stage, where she has won six Tony Awards for performances 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 & Grill (2014). She is the only actor to have won in all four acting categories. Her screen credits include the role of Ella Baker in Rustin (2023), Madame Garderobe in Beauty and the Beast (2017), and Barbara Franklin in Respect (2021), as well as recurring television roles in The Good Fight and The Gilded Age.
She has also received two Grammy Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award. In 2016 she was awarded the National Medal of Arts, and in 2017 she was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.
