Viola Davis is an American actress and film producer known for Doubt (2008), The Help (2011), Fences (2016), Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020), The Woman King (2022), and the television drama How to Get Away with Murder (2014–2020). Born August 11, 1965, in St. Matthews, South Carolina, she is 61 years old. At 5 feet 5 inches tall, Davis has won both the Triple Crown of Acting and the EGOT, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, and two Tony Awards. She is married to actor Julius Tennon, and her net worth is approximately $25 million (Celebrity Net Worth, 2025).
Quick Facts
| Full Name | Viola Davis |
| Born | August 11, 1965 (age 61) |
| Birthplace | St. Matthews, South Carolina |
| Height | 5 ft 5 in (165 cm) |
| Occupation | Actress, Film Producer |
| Husband | Julius Tennon (married 2003) |
| Children | 1 adopted daughter (Genesis) |
| Net Worth | Approx. $25 million (Celebrity Net Worth, 2025) |
| Nationality | American |
Who Is Viola Davis?
Viola Davis is an American actress and film producer whose accolades include both the Triple Crown of Acting — competitive wins at the Academy Awards, the Primetime Emmy Awards, and the Tony Awards — and the EGOT, which adds a Grammy Award. She is the youngest person and the first Black person to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2012 and again in 2017, and The New York Times ranked her ninth on its list of the greatest actors of the 21st century (2020). She received the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 2025 Golden Globe Awards.
Davis won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Fences (2016), in which she played Rose Maxson opposite Denzel Washington, and she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for How to Get Away with Murder (2015), becoming the first Black woman to win that award. She won her two Tony Awards for King Hedley II (2001) and Fences (2010), and she completed the EGOT with a Grammy Award for her memoir Finding Me (2023), which was a New York Times bestseller.
Early Life & Background
Viola Davis was born on August 11, 1965, in St. Matthews, South Carolina, the youngest of six children of Dan Davis, a horse groom, and Mary Alice Davis, a maid, factory worker, and civil rights activist. When she was two months old, the family moved to Central Falls, Rhode Island, where she grew up in poverty — she has spoken about living in rat-infested apartments and going hungry as a child. She discovered acting at school, graduated from Rhode Island College in 1988 with a theatre degree, and earned her diploma from the Juilliard School in New York in 1993.
Davis built her reputation on the stage before she became a film star. She appeared in the original Broadway production of August Wilson’s Seven Guitars in 1996, and she won her first Tony Award, for Best Featured Actress in a Play, for Wilson’s King Hedley II in 2001. She made her film debut in The Substance of Fire (1996) and took small roles in Out of Sight (1998) and Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic (2000). In 2003, she married the actor Julius Tennon, whom she had met in Los Angeles.
Career
Davis’s film breakthrough came with Doubt (2008), in which she played Mrs. Miller, the mother of a boy at a Catholic school, in a single scene opposite Meryl Streep. The performance earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and wide acclaim. She then starred as Aibileen Clark in The Help (2011), opposite Emma Stone, earning her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, a Golden Globe nomination, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She also won a second Tony Award, for Best Actress in a Play, for Fences on Broadway in 2010, again playing Rose Maxson.
Davis’s television breakthrough came as the defense lawyer Annalise Keating in Shonda Rhimes’s How to Get Away with Murder (2014–2020). In 2015, she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, becoming the first Black woman to win the award. She then reprised her stage role as Rose Maxson in the film adaptation of Fences (2016), directed by and co-starring Denzel Washington, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Davis has continued to take leading roles in major films. She starred in Steve McQueen’s heist thriller Widows (2018), earned her fourth Academy Award nomination for playing the blues singer Ma Rainey in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020), and led the action epic The Woman King (2022) as General Nanisca, a role she also produced. She played Michael Jordan’s mother, Deloris Jordan, in Air (2023), played the villainous Dr. Volumnia Gaul in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023), and starred as the President of the United States in the action thriller G20 (2025). With her husband, she runs the production company JuVee Productions, which they founded in 2011.
Facts About Viola Davis
- Davis is the youngest person and the first Black person to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting.
- She completed the EGOT in 2023, winning a Grammy Award for her memoir Finding Me.
- She won her Primetime Emmy Award for How to Get Away with Murder in 2015, becoming the first Black woman to win Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
- Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2012 and again in 2017.
- She received the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 2025 Golden Globe Awards.
Frequently Asked Questions
How old is Viola Davis?
Viola Davis was born on August 11, 1965, in St. Matthews, South Carolina. She is 61 years old.
How tall is Viola Davis?
Viola Davis is 5 feet 5 inches tall (165 cm).
Who is Viola Davis’s husband?
Viola Davis is married to actor Julius Tennon. They married in June 2003 and have an adopted daughter, Genesis.
What is Viola Davis’s net worth?
Viola Davis’s net worth is approximately $25 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth (2025).
What is Viola Davis’s most famous role?
Viola Davis is best known as Rose Maxson in Fences, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and as Annalise Keating in How to Get Away with Murder, for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award.