Viola Davis Earns EGOT Status With Audiobook Win


Viola Davis.
John Salangsang/Shutterstock

One other one for the trophy case! Viola Davis turned an EGOT winner on Sunday, February 5, when she earned a Grammy Award for narrating the audiobook of her memoir, Discovering Me.

“It has simply been such a journey,” the Girl King actress, 57, stated whereas accepting the award for Greatest Audio Guide, Narration, and Storytelling Recording. “I simply EGOT!”

The How one can Get Away With Homicide alum added that she penned the e book — which hit cabinets in April 2022 — for her youthful self. “I wrote this e book to honor the 6-year-old Viola, to honor her, to honor her life, her pleasure, her trauma, her the whole lot,” she stated through the pre-telecast portion of the ceremony.

Davis received her first Tony Award in 2001 for her efficiency in August Wilson’s King Hedley II. She took house her second Tony in 2010 for her work in Fences, additionally by Wilson. Her Emmy win got here in 2015 when she picked up the glory for How one can Get Away With Homicide. In 2017, the Doubt star received an Oscar for Greatest Supporting Actress within the movie adaptation of Fences costarring and directed by Denzel Washington.

Earlier this 12 months, Davis opened up about how she would really feel about turning into an EGOT winner along with her first Grammy nomination. “I completely, undoubtedly give it some thought as an enormous accomplishment,” she defined in an interview with Grammy.com in January. “I really feel this manner, despite the fact that it’s most likely a really dramatic assertion on my half: I feel that everyone needs their life to imply one thing. I imagine within the Cherokee delivery blessing, which is, ‘Could you reside lengthy sufficient to know why you had been born.’ I do imagine that you just actually wanna blow a gap by way of this world in no matter means you may.”

She added: “Lots of people don’t know the way to do this. Lots of people haven’t discovered that factor that they’re obsessed with, that they’ll do. Some have. However all of us are in search of that, blowing a gap by way of this earth earlier than we depart it. I take into consideration that in my work quite a bit. I actually discovered that factor that I like to do. So I at all times wanna make it significant.”

The Widows star is simply the third Black girl in historical past to attain EGOT standing. The opposite two are Whoopi Goldberg, who hit the milestone in 2002, and Jennifer Hudson, who accomplished hers final 12 months.

Earlier than Davis received her Grammy, Hudson, 41, was the newest superstar to earn the coveted achievement. The American Idol alum received an Oscar in 2007 for her efficiency in Dreamgirls, a Grammy in 2009 for her self-titled debut album and a Daytime Emmy in 2021 for government producing the animated movie Baba Yaga. She accomplished her EGOT in June 2022 when she received a Tony Award for producing the Broadway musical A Unusual Loop.