Viola Davis was born August 11, 1965 in St. Matthews, South Carolina. She began her acting career by starring in minor theater productions. She is now considered one of the most famous African American actresses today. She was the first black actress to be nominated for three Academy Awards, winning one, and is the only black person to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting. However, Davis’s background story is not all rainbows. Before she became the first black woman to win an Emmy for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series, she had to overcome poverty which was difficult and she was ashamed about it.
She had told a crowd at the Variety Power of Women event that, “Although my childhood was filled with many happy memories, it was also spent in abject poverty. I was one of the 17 million kids in this country who didn’t know where the next meal was coming from. And I did everything to get food.” She talked about how she had stolen for food. Davis had lived in a rat infested apartment where she jumped in huge garbage bins with maggots for food, she befriended people in the neighborhood who she knew had mothers that cooked three meals a day, just to eat!
Davis used acting as an escape and despite her challenges in life, she pursued her dreams while attending Rhode Island College and later Julliard School of Performing Arts in New York City. After attending the Julliard School of Performing Arts, Davis made her Broadway debut in 1996 in Seven Guitars. She has won two Tony Awards for her performances in King Hedley II (2001) and Fences (2010), which co-starred Denzel Washington. Her film work includes Doubt (2008), for which she received an Oscar nomination, The Help (2011), Ender’s Game (2013) and Get on Up (2014). In 2015 she became the first African-American woman to win an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her work on the television series How to Get Away with Murder. In the 2016 film adaptation of Fences, she received an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2017.
I chose Viola Davis to profile because she is one of the most successful African American women today. I thought who would be a figure people living in poverty can look up to? She was the first person who came into my head because she has been through the struggle and lived in it but now she is making history and trying to be an example for others that they can make it out too. The audience is directed to people in poverty who don’t think they could make it out and to the girls who are told, “no that’s a man world, you wont succeed.”
Poverty Can Make or Break A Child 