- Born
- Birth nameAudra Ann McDonald
- Height5′ 8″ (1.73 m)
- Audra McDonald was born on July 3, 1970 in Berlin, Germany as Audra Ann McDonald. She's an actress and singer, best known for her many roles on Broadway. Her mother was a university administrator and her father was a high school principal stationed in West Berlin with the U.S. Army. She has a younger sister and grew up in Fresno, California. She graduated from Theodore Roosevelt High School and went on to study classical singing at Julliard, from which she graduated in 1993. A year later, she won her first Tony Award for her role in Carousel. In 1998, she released her first solo album Way Back to Paradise. She was nominated for her first Emmy Award in 2001 for her role in Wit (2001). In 2006, she debuted as an opera singer in a production of a one-act opera La Voix humaine at the Houston Grand Opera. By 2014, she had won 6 Tonys, becoming the first person to win the award in all 4 acting categories. She planned to make her West End debut in 2016 but postponed it in order to go on maternity leave, eventually debuting at the Wyndham's Theater in the West End in June 2017. She has made many TV and movie appearances, most notably in 4 seasons of Private Practice (2007) & in Disney's remake of Beauty and the Beast (2017). She also performs at concerts throughout the U.S. She was married to Peter Donovan from 2000 to 2009, they have a daughter, Zoe Madeline. Since 2012 she's been married to Will Swenson, they have a daughter, Sally James.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Evil_Herbivore
- SpousesWill Swenson(October 6, 2012 - present) (1 child)Peter Donovan(September 10, 2000 - 2009) (divorced, 1 child)
- ChildrenSally James McDonald-Swenson
- ParentsStanley McDonald Jr.Anna Kathryn
- RelativesAlison McDonald(Sibling)
- Singing ability.
- The youngest actor ever to win three Tony Awards.
- She almost didn't graduate from Juilliard because of her lack of interest in classical music, but with the help of a fellow student, impressed her teachers and went on to become a huge Broadway star.
- At her final "Carousel" audition, Audra fainted on stage while singing. She still got the part and went on to win her first Tony Award in 1994.
- In June 2014, Audra McDonald won a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play, for playing Billie Holiday in "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill." This was her sixth Tony Award win, and it meant that she set a number of records. She is now the first performer, male or female, to win six competitive Tonys (Julie Harris also had six Tonys, but one was honorary). McDonald is also the only performer ever to win Tonys in all four possible acting categories: Best Leading Performance in both a play and a musical and Best Supporting Performance in both a play and a musical.
- Suffered from long term severe depression and admitted she once attempted to take her own life in her early twenties.
- [on kissing Anthony Quinn in Seven Servants (1996)] He was about 80 years old at the time. He kept telling me to open my mouth more!
- [on performing virtually] I don't love it. I'm addicted to what I call the holy communion between the audience and the artist. But I understand the necessity of it because we still need the arts. We need theatre. We need music. We need inspiration. We need catharsis. We need being in touch with our humanity.
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