She may have been unfairly snubbed for an Academy Award nomination for her performance in “The Woman King,” but Viola Davis has something bigger to celebrate this month. During a pre-broadcast ceremony this afternoon, Davis won a Grammy Award in the Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording category for her own memoir, “Finding Me.” She now has won all four major entertainment awards landing her in the coveted EGOT club.
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How did she do it? Davis first won a Tony Award in 2001 for Best Featured Actress in a Play for “King Hedley II” (she subsequently won a second Tony in 2010 for “Fences”). She won an Emmy Award in 2015 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for “How To Get Away With Murder.” Two years later she won an Oscar in the Best Supporting Actress category for the screen version of “Fences.” Today, her Grammy award completed a 22-year journey to reach EGOT status.
It was Davis’ first Grammy Award nomination. Previous winners in her category include Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Martin Luther King, Jr., Maya Angelou, Ben Kingsley, Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Sidney Poitier, Betty White, Michael J. Fox, Jimmy Carter, Michelle Obama, and Don Cheadle.
The South Carolina native becomes just the third African-American woman to win EGOT after Whoopi Goldberg in 2022 and Jennifer Hudson, who pulled off the quadrupole crown last year. Helen Hayes and Rita Moreno are the only other women to have won in the “traditional” manner. Barbra Streisand qualified by receiving a Special Tony Award in 1970 while Liza Minnelli won if you count her 1990 Grammy Legend Award (slightly dubious).
There are now 18 “traditional” EGOT winners and four additional that are up for debate.
Over her career, Davis has also won a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, and, remarkably, six SAG Awards. Her upcoming feature film credits include Ben Affleck’s “Air” and Francis Lawrence’s “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” which will hit theaters later this year. She’s also expected to star in the new DC Studios and HBO Max series “Waller.” When that recently announced project goes before cameras is unclear at this time.