Audra McDonald

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Audra McDonald

Audra McDonald (born July 3, 1970) is a four-time Tony Award-winning American actress and singer.

Born in Berlin, Germany and raised in Fresno, California, the elder of two daughters, she began to study acting at a young age to counteract her diagnosis as "hyperactive." She studied classical voice as an undergraduate at the Juilliard School of Music, graduating in 1993.

McDonald became a three-time Tony Award winner by the age of 28 — for her performances in Carousel, Master Class, and Ragtime — placing her alongside Shirley Booth, Gwen Verdon and Zero Mostel by accomplishing this feat within five years. She was nominated for another Tony Award for her performance in Marie Christine before she won her fourth in 2004 for her role in A Raisin in the Sun, placing her in the company of other four-time winning actresses Angela Lansbury, Gwen Verdon and Mary Martin. Only Julie Harris has won more, having won five.

While well known for her singing abilities, she has won acclaim for her dramatic performances as well. In 2001, she received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or TV Movie for the HBO film Wit starring Emma Thompson and directed by Mike Nichols. She also has appeared on Homicide: Life on the Street, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years, the short-lived Mister Sterling and Kidnapped, and in the 1999 television remake of Annie as Daddy Warbucks' secretary Miss Farrell. She rang in 2007 with the New York Philharmonic in a concert of music from the movies televised on Live from Lincoln Center by PBS.

On the big screen, McDonald has appeared in Best Thief in the World (2004), It Runs in the Family (2003), Cradle Will Rock (1999), The Object of My Affection (1998), and Seven Servants (1996).

McDonald has recorded four solo albums for Nonesuch Records. Her first, the 1998 Way Back to Paradise, featured songs written by a new generation of musical theatre composers who had achieved varying degrees of prominence in the 1990s, particularly Michael John LaChiusa, Adam Guettel and Jason Robert Brown. Her subsequent albums, How Glory Goes and Happy Songs, [1] have featured more traditional theater and cabaret songs along with some songs by these new composers. Her fourth album, Build a Bridge [2], features primarily pop songs by such singer-songwriters as Elvis Costello, Nellie McKay, Neil Young, Rufus Wainwright and Randy Newman.

She frequently appears in concert and has performed with a number of the most prestigious orchestras world-wide.

McDonald married bassist Peter Donovan in 2000. They have one daughter, Zoe Madeline.

McDonald is scheduled to perform as Jenny in the Los Angeles Opera production of Kurt Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny on Feb. 10 to March 4, 2007 and as Lizzie in the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of 110 in the Shade, directed by Lonny Price at Studio 54, in spring 2007.

[edit] Additional recordings

Carousel (Broadway Revival Cast Recording) (1994)
Ragtime (Original Cast Recording) (1998)
Annie (1999)
Wonderful Town (Studio Recording) (1999)
Marie Christine (Original Cast Recording) (1999)
Sweeney Todd Live at the New York Philharmonic (2000)
Bright Eyed Joy: The Songs of Ricky Ian Gordon (2001)
Dreamgirls in Concert (Concert Cast Recording) (2001)

[edit] Additional awards and nominations

1994 Theatre World Award (Carousel, winner)
1994 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical (Carousel, winner)
1994 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical (Carousel, winner)
1995 Ovation Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play (Master Class, winner)
2001 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Performance in a Variety Series/Special (Audra McDonald in Concert, nominee)
2004 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play (A Raisin in the Sun, winner)
2004 Drama League Award (A Raisin in the Sun, nominee)
2004 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play (A Raisin in the Sun, winner)

Preceded by Andrea Martin for My Favorite Year	Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical 1994 for Carousel	Succeeded by Gretha Boston for Show Boat

Preceded by Lillias White for The Life	Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical 1998 for Ragtime	Succeeded by Kristin Chenoweth for You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown