Viola Davis turns 60: her incredible journey from poverty to the EGOT club

Viola Davis is celebrating her 60th birthday today, August 11, and her life story feels straight out of a movie. The fierce Leo was born in the rural South, in a one-room cabin on a plantation in St. Matthews, South Carolina, with no running water or electricity. Her grandfather was a sharecropper, and the first months of her life were spent in that single room before her family moved to Rhode Island looking for better opportunities. 

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From those humble beginnings, she’s gone on to become one of the most acclaimed actors of all time: an EGOT winner, a masterclass subject for acting students, and a career full of unforgettable performances.

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Her Incredible Career

Davis' first big steps were on stage. She shone on Broadway and won her first Tony in 2001 for King Hedley II, and her second in 2010 for August Wilson’s Fences. Then came television history. 

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In 2015, she became the first Black woman to win the Emmy for lead actress in a drama, thanks to her gripping performance in How to Get Away with Murder. 

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Two years later, she took home the Oscar for the film version of Fences, starring alongside Denzel Washington. 

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And in 2023, she joined one of entertainment’s most exclusive clubs when her Grammy win for narrating her memoir Finding Me completed her EGOT. 

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She’s also the first Black actress to hold both the EGOT and the “Triple Crown of Acting” (Oscar, Emmy, and Tony for acting roles) - something only 21 performers in history have achieved.

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Over the years, Davis has worked with Hollywood’s best: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Liam Neeson, Julia Roberts, Hugh Jackman, and George Clooney. 

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Must watch titles

If you want a proper Davis marathon, her essential titles include How to Get Away with Murder (2014–2020), where she played Annalise Keating for six seasons and made TV history. The Help (2011), where she was the emotional heart of the story and earned an Oscar nomination; Prisoners (2013), a tense Denis Villeneuve thriller where she played the mother of a missing girl opposite Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal; and Doubt (2008), where just eight minutes on screen earned her an Oscar nomination for a scene that’s still taught in acting classes.

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Her personal life

And then there’s her real-life love story. In 1999, she met actor Julius Tennon on the set of City of Angels, just three weeks after she had prayed for someone who was kind, funny, loved God, and understood her world. 

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Four years later, they were married. In 2011, they adopted their daughter Genesis and later founded JuVee Productions, a company focused on telling diverse stories that don’t often make it to the screen. Davis has said that through the fire and challenges of life, they’ve always held onto each other.

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An Honorary Doctorate 

Just days ago, she added another honor to the list, an honorary doctorate from the American Film Institute. In her speech to the graduating class, she told them: “You’re creating stories so people don’t feel alone… so they can say, ‘I’m not the only one.’”

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With over sixty credits in film and TV, two Tonys, an Emmy, an Oscar, a Grammy, and now a doctorate, Davis hasn’t just reached the top; she’s changed the way leading women are seen on screen and proven that a story that starts in the most humble place can make history.

© Rodin Eckenroth