Audra McDonald
Birthday:
Birthplace:
Berlin, Germany
A multi-talented performer who segued to acting out of an operatic vocal background, Audra McDonald began life in Berlin, the daughter of a U.S. Army employee father and an Affirmative Action officer mother. McDonald's dad subsequently transported the family to Virginia and then to Fresno, CA, where he taught school; meanwhile, McDonald set her eyes on show business at age nine. She sang and danced in cabaret and acted in dinner theater, and attended a junior high and high school designed expressly for youngsters interested in the performing arts. Soon, Juilliard beckoned, but even though McDonald gained acceptance at age 17, she reportedly felt less than enthusiastic during her time there -- complaining vocally about the instructors' insistence on leading her down an "operatic" path though she felt disinclined to go that way. This rectified itself when McDonald "found her way" into opera via dramatic readings of French literature. Many a stage musical followed for the blossoming diva, among them The Secret Garden, Carousel, and Master Class; throughout, she quickly attained a superior reputation for the dynamic range of her voice and the almost incomparable breadth of her vocal modulation. McDonald transitioned to non-musical film acting in the late '90s, with such productions as the made-for-television Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First One Hundred Years (1999) and Mike Nichols' cable movie Wit (2001); in the years to follow, she also joined the casts of the prime-time dramas Bedford Diaries (2006) and Private Practice (2007). The following year, McDonald carried her involvement in the 2004 Broadway revival of Lorraine Hansberry's seminal play A Raisin in the Sun to the next level by appearing opposite Sean "P. Diddy" Combs and Phylicia Rashad in the 2008 TV movie of that production. In 2011 she appeared Oren Moverman's bad-cop drama Rampart. She played the Mother Abbess in NBC's Sound of Music Live in 2013.
Photos
Highest Rated Movies
Filmography
MOVIES
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | BOX OFFICE | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|---|
71% | Beauty and the Beast |
|
$504M | 2017 |
No Score Yet | Lady Day At Emerson's Bar & Grill |
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— | 2016 |
65% | Ricki And The Flash |
|
— | 2015 |
No Score Yet | The Best of the Boston Pops |
|
— | 2015 |
44% | The Sound Of Music Live! |
|
— | 2013 |
74% | Rampart |
|
$1M | 2012 |
No Score Yet | Johnny Mercer: The Dream's On Me |
|
— | 2009 |
86% | A Raisin in the Sun |
|
— | 2008 |
No Score Yet | Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny |
|
— | 2006 |
40% | The Best Thief in the World |
|
— | 2004 |
29% | It Runs in the Family |
|
$7.4M | 2003 |
No Score Yet | Bernstein: Wonderful Town |
|
— | 2002 |
83% | Wit |
|
— | 2001 |
No Score Yet | The Last Debate |
|
— | 2000 |
65% | Cradle Will Rock |
|
— | 1999 |
No Score Yet | Annie |
|
— | 1999 |
No Score Yet | Having Our Say: Delany Sisters' First 100 Years |
|
— | 1999 |
53% | The Object of My Affection |
|
— | 1998 |
No Score Yet | Seven Servants |
|
— | 1996 |
No Score Yet | Leonard Bernstein's New York |
|
— | 1996 |
TV
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|
80% |
The Gilded Age
2022
|
|
|
67% |
The Bite
2021
|
|
|
95% |
The Good Fight
2017-2020
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The View
1997-2020
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Live From Lincoln Center
2000-2019
|
|
|
84% |
RuPaul's Drag Race
2009
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Talk
2010
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Late Late Show With James Corden
2015-2021
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Ransom
2017-2019
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
2015
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Sesame Street
1969
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Chew
2011-2018
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen
2009
|
|
|
100% |
The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore
2015-2016
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
2014
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
In Performance at the White House
2010
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Doc McStuffins
2020
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Late Show With David Letterman
1993-2015
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Colbert Report
2005-2014
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Sunday Morning
2011-2018
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Iron Chef America
2004-2018
|
|
|
93% |
The Good Wife
2009-2016
|
|
|
51% |
Private Practice
2007-2013
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Great Performances
1972
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Wendy Williams Show
2008
|
|
|
84% |
Grey's Anatomy
2005
|
|
|
13% |
The Bedford Diaries
2006
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
American Masters
1986
|
|
|
78% |
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
1999-2021
|
|
|
91% |
Homicide: Life on the Street
1993-1999
|
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Quotes from Audra McDonald's Characters
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