Viola Davis is one of just 19 individuals to ever achieve EGOT status—a designation given to those who have won each of the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards. A revered artist, activist, producer, philanthropist, and New York Times best-selling author, Davis has won Tony Awards for her performances in King Hedley II (2001) and a revival of August Wilson’s Fences (2010). In 2015, she became the first African American woman to win an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her television role in How to Get Away with Murder. She reprised her role playing Rose Maxson in the 2016 film adaptation of Fences, for which she received an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in 2017. She was honored in 2017 by Time magazine as one of the world’s 100 most influential people, and in 2022, received the Public Counsel’s William O. Douglas Award for her commitment to social justice causes. And in 2023, she received a Grammy Award for Best Audio Book, Narration and Storytelling Recording, for her critically acclaimed and New York Times best-selling memoir Finding Me.

In 2012, Davis and her husband, Julius Tennon, founded their production company, JuVee Productions, with its focus on giving a voice to the voiceless. JuVee creates scripted and non-scripted television, film, documentary, theater, and digital immersive content for global audiences. A graduate of The Juilliard School, Davis received an honorary doctorate during its 109th commencement ceremony. She also holds an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from her alma mater, Rhode Island College, and is also a graduate of Central Falls High School in Rhode Island.