There is a line Viola Davis delivered in a 2012 Emmy acceptance speech that still circulates years later. "The only thing that separates women of colour from anyone else," she said, "is opportunity."
Coming from someone who grew up in genuine poverty on a former slave plantation, the line carries weight that a more comfortable biography could not provide.
Davis has spent her career converting that weight into art.
Early Life and Background
Viola Davis was born on August 11, 1965, on her grandmother's farm in St. Matthews, South Carolina.
The farm sat on the former Singleton Plantation. She was the second youngest of six children born to Dan Davis, a horse trainer, and Mary Alice, who worked as a maid, factory worker, and civil rights activist.
The family moved to Central Falls, Rhode Island, shortly after her birth, and Davis has been direct about the deprivation of her childhood.
She has described growing up in "abject poverty and dysfunction," with food insecurity a constant presence.
She credits her involvement in the arts at Central Falls High School as the stabilising force that pointed her toward a future.
Training and Early Stage Career
Davis attended Rhode Island College on a scholarship before transferring to the prestigious Juilliard School in New York, where she trained seriously as an actor.
After graduating from Juilliard in 1993, she built her career on the stage, becoming one of the more respected theatrical performers of her generation in the process.
She won a Tony Award for the 2001 revival of King Hedley II. She won a second Tony in 2010 for Fences, the August Wilson play that would eventually become a film she would headline alongside Denzel Washington.
Hollywood and Television Breakthrough
Davis worked steadily in film through the 2000s in supporting roles — she appeared in Far from Heaven (2002), Antwone Fisher (2002), and Doubt (2008), for which she received her first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress despite appearing in only two scenes.
The major television breakthrough came with How to Get Away with Murder, the ABC legal thriller where she played Professor Annalise Keating from 2014 to 2020.
Her performance won her the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2015 — making her the first Black woman to win in that category.
In 2017, she starred in and produced the film adaptation of Fences, receiving the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress — completing, along with her Emmy and Tony wins, the EGOT trifecta (Emmy, Grammy for the audiobook, Oscar, Tony).
The Woman King and Epilda Cultural Context
In 2022, Davis starred in The Woman King, Gina Prince-Bythewood's historical epic about the Agojie — the all-female warrior unit of the West African Kingdom of Dahomey.
The film was a cultural milestone, placing West African history at the centre of a major Hollywood action film. Davis trained extensively, building physical presence that matched the role's demands.
Her reunion with Prince-Bythewood on Children of Blood and Bone — where she plays the mentor figure Mama Agba — deepens a creative partnership that has already demonstrated it can carry African history to mainstream audiences with both power and specificity.
Awards Summary
● Academy Award, Best Supporting Actress — Fences (2017)
● Primetime Emmy Award, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series — How to Get Away with Murder (2015)
● Two Tony Awards — King Hedley II (2001), Fences (2010)
● Grammy Award — Best Audiobook, Narration and Storytelling Recording — Finding Me (2023)
● Screen Actors Guild Awards, Golden Globe Awards, British Academy Film Awards (multiple nominations)
— FAQ —
What is Viola Davis's character in Children of Blood and Bone?
She plays Mama Agba, the mentor figure to Zélie Adebola.
Has Viola Davis won an Oscar?
Yes. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Fences (2017).
Where was Viola Davis born?
St. Matthews, South Carolina, on her grandmother's farm on the former Singleton Plantation.