ACTOR
Audra McDonald
- Known for
- The Good Fight (2017), Respect (2021), Wit (2001), Private Practice (2007)
16 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
Audra McDonald is an actor best known for The Good Fight, Respect and Wit.
All facts (16)
- #001
Audra McDonald is the youngest actor to win three Tony Awards.
- #002
Audra fainted on stage while singing at her final "Carousel" audition. She still took the role and won her first Tony Award in 1994.
- #003
She suffered from long-term severe depression and once admitted that she had attempted suicide in her early twenties.
- #004
Although she was born in Germany, she grew up in Fresno, California.
- #005
On October 19, 2016, at the age of 46, she gave birth to her second child, a daughter named Sally James McDonald-Swenson. The child's father is her husband, Will Swenson.
- #006
Her daughter Zoe Madeline (pronounced ZO) was named after two of McDonald's good friends, Zoe Caldwell and the late Madeline Kahn.
- #007
She married her boyfriend of two years, Will Swenson. It is the second marriage for both of them.
- #008
While appearing in the Broadway musical "Shuffle Along," McDonald announced that she had to take a break from the show because she had unexpectedly found herself pregnant at 45. She tweeted, "Who knew that tap dancing during perimenopause could lead to 2 pregnancies? @thewillswenson and I are completely surprised but 2 b even happier than I expected." Although the producers ultimately decided to close the show because McDonald had to leave, McDonald performed a powerful singing and tap dancing routine while six months pregnant at that year's Tony Awards.
- #009
She graduated from the Juilliard School in 1993.
- #010
She was awarded the 2016 National Medal of Arts for her services and contributions to theater.
- #011
Five of her aunts toured as the McDonald Sisters in the 1970s. They sang gospel music.
- #012
She was awarded the 1995 Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Award for Best Featured Actress for her role in "Master Class" in the Gordon Davidson/Mark Taper Forum production at the Mark Taper Forum Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
- #013
She gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Zoe Madeline Donovan, on February 14, 2001, at the age of 30. The child's father is her former first husband, Peter Donovan.
- #014
Audra is one of three artists to have won six Tony Awards; however, Audra won all of hers in competition, while Julie Harris and Angela Lansbury won five Tonys in competition and received the sixth as a Lifetime Achievement Award.
- #015
She attended Roosevelt School of the Arts in Fresno along with Christopher Gorham, Matthew Floyd Miller, Kurando Mitsutake, James Runcorn and Mick Wingert.
- #016
She is the sister-in-law of Robert Swenson.
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