Viola Davis is now one of the most recognizable stars in Hollywood, but when she first moved to California from New York in the early 2000s to start a screen career after Broadway success, she was struggling in her personal life. In a 2013 interview with Page Six, the Academy Award-winner, who is nominated once again for Best Actress for her titular role in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, spoke candidly about the solitude she felt before meeting her husband, actor Julius Tennon.
Davis, 55, and Tennon, 67, met in L.A. on the set of the medical drama series City of Angels and have been married since 2003. Now, the couple share plenty, including an adopted daughter, Genesis, and their own production company, JuVee Productions. Together, Davis and Tennon are working on changing the film and television industry by spearheading projects with more robust roles for Black actors and more representation behind the scenes.
Here's what you should know about the cinematic way Davis and Tennon met, his acting career, and the pair's life (and work) together.
Davis and Tennon had a serendipitous first meeting in 2003.
According to the interview she gave to Page Six, Davis "was the loneliest woman in the world" back in the early 2000s. She was advised by a friend to "pray" for the ideal partner, which she did.
"I said I wanted a big Black man from the South who looked like a football player, who already had children, who maybe had been married before," she said. "3 1/2 weeks later I met my husband.”
In a 2017 interview for the OWN show Black Love, Tennon recalled his own version of their meet-cute.
"I just overheard her talking to a girl in front of her saying, 'I don't like L.A. I don't know anybody.' She was kinda complaining," Tennon said. "I was dating a girl, who was a little bit of a monster, and I was kinda like, 'She seems like a nice lady. She doesn't know anybody. I'm kinda ready to meet somebody else.' So at the end of the day, I gave her my card."
In the same interview, Davis joked that she knew Tennon was special because, unlike many other male actors, he had his shirt on in the picture on his card. Ultimately though, it took her a month to finally reach out due to the difficulty of her adjustment to California.
"I didn't call because I had bad credit. I was struggling with driving in L.A. Finally, everyone was saying, 'You've got to call him,'" she explained. "I said, 'You know what? I'm gonna call him.' And after my first date with Julius, my life got better [in] every way. Anxiety went away, fear went away. He just made my life better."
Tennon had previously been married, and has two grown kids, Sheavonda, 44, and Duriel, 41.
Tennon has appeared in several movies with Davis, and they run a production company together.
Since they got together in the early 2000s, Tennon has had roles in many projects that starred Davis. In Get On Up, she played Susie Brown, while he appeared as Grandpa Byrd. Tennon also had a role in Davis's 2015 crime thriller, Lila & Eve, as well as an appearance on How to Get Away with Murder, the hit TV series for which Davis won an Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series Emmy in 2016.
Davis spoke to Jimmy Kimmel Live about the scenes she did with her husband on the show.
The next collaboration between the couple is slated to be Operation: Othello, a futuristic update on the Shakespeare work, which will feature Tennon in the titular role and Davis narrating.
Operation: Othello is being released by JuVee Productions, a Los Angeles-based entertainment company the couple founded together, presently specializing in VR content. Davis serves as CEO, while Tennon is President of Development and Production. JuVee has previously helped produce Davis's films like Troop Zero, as well the award-winning documentary Giving Voice, about the August Wilson Monologue Competition, on which they both served as executive producers.
Beyond those films, Tennon has also appeared in Dazed and Confused, Small Soldiers, and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.
His acting career has historic significance, too.
With her nomination for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Viola Davis became the most nominated Black actress in Academy Awards history, and she's also one of fewer than 25 people to earn an Oscar, Emmy, and Tony, referred to as acting's "Triple Crown." But she's not the only member of the Davis-Tennon family to break down barriers.
Per a 2015 interview with the United States Press Agency, Tennon has made history in his own right. Tennon, who grew up in Texas, was a football player for the University of Tulsa, and notably became the first African American student to graduate from its theater department.
In a 2017 interview with The Guardian, Tennon spoke about the need for Hollywood to become a more representative place, which is one of the goals of their work with JuVee.
"When I go to meetings, it’s generally not African Americans that I’m talking to about getting something greenlit. Folks at the top are going to have to make decisions about trying to make systemic change," he said. "That’s the only way it’s going to happen—by creating a pipeline of opportunities for folk to get in there, go through it and get out and start being a part of it at the top.”
Davis and Tennon adopted a daughter together.
![los angeles, california august 10 l r julius tennon, genesis tennon, and viola davis attend the premiere of sonys the angry birds movie 2 on august 10, 2019 in los angeles, california photo by rich furygetty images](https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/images/gettyimages-1167245061.jpg?crop=1xw:0.9390187987161852xh;center,top&resize=980:* "Premiere Of Sony's "The Angry Birds Movie 2" - Red Carpet")
In 2011, the couple adopted their daughter, Genesis. The 10-year-old is following her parents' path. She did voice acting work in The Angry Birds Movie 2 and appeared on the film's red carpet.
The full Tennon-Davis family was recently featured in a photoshoot for W, directed by Regina King.
In a 2017 interview with People, Davis, whose family was impoverished when she was a child, spoke about her concerns around parenting.
“You just listed my number one fear, which is entitlement," she said. "I never had a house; Genesis has a house. I do shop at Target, I buy all her clothes at Target or H&M. And maybe, if I’m feeling really good, Nordstrom Rack.”
In that same interview, Davis noted that, in addition to his two adult children, Tennon also had seven grandkids.
The couple renewed their vows in 2016.
Thirteen years after they got married, Davis and Tennon renewed their vows to each other in an intimate California ceremony. It was actually their third time exchanging vows.
"There’s no better way to feel what life is truly about than the birth of a child and getting married to someone you love—really love," Davis told InStyle. "It's a reminder. A wake up. My career is about success but my marriage and my life is about significance.”
There's plenty in the pipeline for Davis and Tennon. As he told TheGrio in December 2020, that may even include the couple teaming up for a "two-hander" theater show sometime in the future.
Grant Rindner is a culture and music journalist in New York. He has written for Billboard, Complex, and i-D, among other outlets.
