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Home , 110 in the Shade, Audra McDonald, Michael John LaChiusa, Patti LuPone, Theatre World Award

AUDRA McDONALD Singer & Actor

Audra McDonald is unparalleled in theTime breadth and versatility of her artistry, as both a singer and an actor. The winner of a record-breaking six , two Grammy Awards, and an Emmy Award, she was named one of magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2015 and received a 2015 —America’s highest honor for achievement in the arts— from President . Blessed with a luminous soprano and an incomparable gift for dramatic truth-telling, she is as much at home on Broadway and stages as she is in roles on film and television. In addition to her theatrical work, she maintains a major career as a concert and recording artist, regularly appearing on the great stages of the world.

Born into a musical family, McDonald grew up in Fresno, , and received her classical vocal training at the . A year after graduating, she won her first Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for at LincolnMaster Center Class Theater. She receivedRagtime two additional Tony Awards in the featured actress category over the next four years for her performances in the Broadway premieres of Terrence McNally’s A in the(1996) Sun and (1998), for an unprecedented total of three Tony Awards before the age of 30. InThe Gershwins’2004 she won Porgy her and fourth Bess Tony, starring alongside Sean “Diddy” Combs in , and in 2012 she won her fifth—and her first in the leading actress category—for her role in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar. &In Grill 2014 she made Broadway history and became the Tony Awards’ most decorated performer when she won her sixth award for her portrayal of in —the role that also served as the vehicle for her Olivier Award-nominated 2017 debut in London’s West End. In additionThe Secret to setting Garden the record Mariefor most competitiveChristine wins Henryby an actor,IV she also110 becamein the Shade the first person to receive awards in all four acting categories. TwelfthMcDonald’s Night other theaterShuffle credits Along, include or, The Making of the Musical (1993), Sensation of 1921 and (1999),All That Followed (2004), Frankie and (2007), Johnny herin the Public Clair Theater de Lune Shakespeare in the Park debut in (2009), (2016), and (2019). La voix humaine Send McDonald made her opera debut in 2006 at , where she starred in a double bill: the monodrama by FrancisRise Poulenc and Falland ofthe the world City ofpremiere Mahagonny of by Michael John LaChiusa. She made her Opera debut in 2007 starring alongside Patti LuPone in ’s production of ’s . The resulting recording won McDonald two Grammy Awards, for Best Opera Recording and Best Classical Album.

On the concert stage, McDonald has premiered music by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and sung with virtually every major American orchestra—including the Symphony, Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National

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Symphony, Philharmonic, Orchestra, and Symphony— and under such conductors as Sir , Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Leonard Slatkin. She made her debut in 1998 with the San Francisco Symphony under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas in a season-opening concert that was broadcast live on PBS. Internationally, she has sung at the BBC Proms in London (where she was only the second American in more than 100 years invited to appear as a guest soloist at the Last Night of the Proms) and at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, as as with the London Symphony Orchestra and Philharmonic. Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years It was the Peabody Award-winning CBS program that first introduced McDonald to television audiences as a dramaticLaw & Order: actor. Special She went Victims on to co-starUnit with Kathy Bates and in the lauded 1999 Disney/ABC television remake of , and in 2000 she had a recurringWit role on NBC’s hit series . After receiving her first Emmy nomination for her performance in theMister HBO Sterling film version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play , directed by Mike NicholsThe and West starring Wing , McDonald returned to network television in 2003 inThe the Bedfordpolitical Diaries drama , produced by Emmy Award-winner Lawrence O’Donnell, Jr.Kidnapped ( ) and starring Josh Brolin. In early 2006 sheA Raisin joined in the the cast Sun of the WB’s , and over the next season she had a recurring role on NBC’s television series . In 2008 she reprised her Tony-winning role inPrivate Practice in a made-for-television movie adaption, earning her a second Emmy Award nomination. From 2007 to 2011, she played Dr.The Naomi Sound Bennett of Music on the hit ABC medical drama, . In 2013, her critically acclaimed performance as the Mother Abbess in NBC’s live telecast of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Lady, Day oppositeat Emerson’s Bar Underwood & Grill as Maria, was watched by an estimated 18.5 million people across America. She The received Good Wife a fourth Emmy nomination for her role in HBO’s filmThe special Good ofFight in 2016. Having first appeared as US attorney Liz Lawrence on CBS’s legal drama in 2009, she joined the castRespect of CBS All Access’s as a season regular in 2018. She appears alongside Jennifer Hudson, Forest Whitaker and Mary J. Blige in MGM’s forthcoming Aretha Franklin biopic, .

McDonald also makes regular television appearancesPassion as a performer, host, and talk-show guest. A familiar faceSomething on PBS, she Wonderful has headlined telecasts including an American Songbook season- opening concert, a presentation of Sondheim’s , a Rodgers and Hammerstein tribute concert titled One, and Singular five galas Sensation! with the Celebrating New York MarvinPhilharmonic: Hamlisch a New Year’s Eve performanceSweeney Todd in 2006, a concert celebrating Sondheim’s 80th birthday, ACarnegie Broadway Celebration:Hall’s 120th Inanniversary Performance concert, at the White House A Celebration of American Creativity, and, most recently, . She was also featured in the PBS television specials and 60 Minutes Today, singingPBS NewsHourat the request of CBS President Sunday BarackMorning Obama and First LadyThe Michelle View Obama. McDonald has appeared threeThe Late times Show on the with Kennedy Stephen Center Colbert Honors; David been Letterman profiled by The Tonight Show, with, Jimmy Fallon, andLate Night with Jimmy; Fallon guest co-hosted The Late, Late Show with with Barbara James Corden Walters; The and Colbert been Reporta guest onCBS This Morning Live with Kelly and Ryanand NewsNation with; Tamron Hall ; ; ;

; ; , ;

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PoliticsNation with Al Sharpton Iron Chef America The Megan Mullally Show The Rosie O’Donnell Show RuPaul’s Drag Race The Tavis Smiley Show The Talk The Wendy Williams Show The Nightly Show with; Larry Wilmore ; ; ; Live From Lincoln; Center ; ; ; and . In 2012, McDonald was named the new official host of the PBS series , and she won her first Primetime Emmy Award for hosting the Creative Arts Special Program in 2015, having previously been nominated in 2013. She has also performed on numerous Tony Awards telecasts; in 2013, she closed the show by performing a rap duet with Neil SevenPatrick Servants Harris. The Object of My Affection It Runs in the McDonaldFamily launchedThe Best her Thieffilm career in the withWorld She Got in Problems1996; her list of credits has since grown to include (1998), (1999), Rampart (2003), (2004), Ricki and the (2009)—a Flash mockumentary movie musical written, starring, and directed by her sister, Alison McDonald—and Beauty(2012). and She therecently Beast appeared opposite in (2015), in the movie-musical (2017), and—as Madame de Garderobe—in Disney’s live-action (2017).

As a recording artist, McDonald has enjoyed a long relationship with New the York Nonesuch Times label, interpreting songs from the classicWay Back (Gershwin, to Paradise Arlen, and Bernstein) to the contemporary (Michael JohnHow LaChiusa, Glory Goes , andHappy Ricky Songs Ian Gordon). The named Buildher afirst Bridge Nonesuch album, 1998’s , as Adult Record of the Year. Following the bestselling in 2000 and in 2002, sheSing released Happy, the 2006 album , stretching her repertoire to include songs by the likes of Randy Newman, Elvis Costello/Burt Bacharach, Rufus Wainwright, and Nellie McKay. recorded live with the New YorkWonderful Philharmonic, Town was released in 2018 by Decca Gold, marking McDonald’s first solo recording withSweeney full orchestra. Todd Her Dreamgirlsensemble recordings include the acclaimed EMI version of Bernstein’s conductedAllegro by Sir Simon Rattle, the NewCarousel York Philha RagtimermonicMarie release Christineof Sondheim’s110 in the Shade The, and Gershwins’ Porgy in concert, and Bess as wellLady as the Day first at Emerson’srecording Barof & RodgersGrill and Hammerstein’s and Broadway cast albums of , , , Sondheim! The Birthday, Concert Christmas with, theand Mormon and Orchestra. She is at also Temple featured Square on aWeill—Rise number of andaudiovisual Fall of the recordings City of Mahagonny available onBernstein— DVD and Blu-ray, Wonderfulincluding Town Audra McDonald: Live at; the Donmar, London My Favorite Broadway: The Leading Ladies ; ; ; ; and .

McDonald’s other theater accolades include five Drama Desk Awards, five Outer Critics Circle Awards, an Ovation Award, a , Roundabout Theatre’s Award for Excellence in Theatre, a Rockefeller Award for Creativity, and the Drama League’sMarie Christine2012 Distinguished 110 in Performancethe Shade and 2000 Distinguished Achievement in Awards. Besides her six Tony wins, she receivedLady Day nom at Emerson’sinations for Bar her and performances Grill in and , five NAACP Image Awards nominations, and an Olivier Award nomination from her West End debut in .

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As one of today’s key cultural figures, McDonald was inducted into ’s Hall of Fame as a member of its inaugural class, which included Louis Armstrong, Plácido Domingo, Yo- Yo Ma, Leontyne Price, and , and named Musical America’s “Musician of the Year,” a title previously bestowed on such luminaries as and Beverly Sills. She has been honored by two of America’s leading academic institutions, receiving the prestigious 2018 Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT, and an honorary doctorate from Yale University.

In addition to her professional obligations, McDonald is a passionate advocate for equal rights, LGBTQ causes, and underprivileged youth. Her outspoken activism for marriage equality helped put the issue on the national agenda. In 2009, she joined to promote the cause, using the Twitter handle @AudraEqualityMc, and in 2011 she joined pro-equality marchers in Albany to lobby New York state senators in the days leading up their groundbreaking vote for legalization. In 2012, she and her now husband, actor , received PFLAG National’s Straight for Equality Award. McDonald was featured in marriage equality and anti-bullying campaigns for Freedom to Marry, NOH8, and PFLAG NYC. The Human Rights Campaign, America’s largest civil rights organization for LGBTQ equality, recognized her work with its 2009 Ally for Equality and 2018 National Equality Awards.

As a member of the International Board of Directors, which oversees programs for homeless young people in 27 cities in six countries across the , Canada, and Latin America, McDonald actively devotes her time andVariety talents to spreading awareness about at-risk youth. For her ongoing contribution to the cause, she was honored in 2017 alongside Chelsea Clinton, Gayle King, and Blake Lively as one of magazine’s “Power of Women” and received Covenant House’s Beacon of Hope Award the following year.

A dog lover, McDonald adopted her canine companion, Butler, from Eleventh Hour Rescue, a volunteer-based, non-profit organization that saves dogs from death row. Of all her many roles, her favorites are the ones performed offstage: passionate advocate for equal rights and homeless youth, wife to actor Will Swenson, and mother. © 21C Media Group, December 2019 Please destroy previously dated materials. Any revisions to this bio must be approved by 21C Media Group.