Biography
Vocalist
Audra McDonald
Audra McDonald is unparalleled in the breadth and versatility of her artistry as both a singer and an actor. The winner of a record-breaking six Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards and an Emmy, in 2015 she was named one of Time’s 100 most influential people and received the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama. In addition to her Tony-winning performances in Carousel, Master Class, Ragtime, A Raisin in the Sun, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, and Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill—the role that also served as the vehicle for her Olivier Award-nominated 2017 debut in London’s West End—she broke records yet again in 2024–25 when she headlined a new Broadway revival of Gypsy, garnering her an unprecedented 11th Tony nomination.
McDonald’s notable television credits include Private Practice, The Good Wife, The Good Fight, and The Gilded Age, and on film, she has appeared in Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast, the documentary Whitney Houston in Focus, Rustin, and the Aretha Franklin biopic Respect. She has issued five solo albums on the Nonesuch label as well as Sing Happy with the New York Philharmonic on Decca Gold. She is a founding member of Black Theatre United, board member of Covenant House International, and prominent advocate for LGBTQIA+ rights, and her favorite roles are those performed offstage, as an activist, wife to actor Will Swenson, and mother. She made her San Francisco Symphony debut in September 1998 in an all-Gershwin program led by Michael Tilson Thomas.
McDonald’s notable television credits include Private Practice, The Good Wife, The Good Fight, and The Gilded Age, and on film, she has appeared in Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast, the documentary Whitney Houston in Focus, Rustin, and the Aretha Franklin biopic Respect. She has issued five solo albums on the Nonesuch label as well as Sing Happy with the New York Philharmonic on Decca Gold. She is a founding member of Black Theatre United, board member of Covenant House International, and prominent advocate for LGBTQIA+ rights, and her favorite roles are those performed offstage, as an activist, wife to actor Will Swenson, and mother. She made her San Francisco Symphony debut in September 1998 in an all-Gershwin program led by Michael Tilson Thomas.
