Audra McDonald : Dr. Naomi Bennett
Date Of Birth: July 3rd, 1970 Hometown: Berlin, Germany
Earning an unprecedented three Tony Awards before the age of 30 and a fourth last season ("Carousel," "Master Class," "Ragtime" and "A Raisin in the Sun"), singer and actress Audra McDonald is frequently compared to legendary performers like Garland and Streisand. Blending a luscious, classically-trained soprano with an incomparable gift for dramatic storytelling, McDonald is also a major concert and recording artist who appears regularly on many of the great stages of the world.
McDonald has sung regularly with all the major American orchestras, including the Boston Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony, under many of the world's greatest conductors, such as John Adams, Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Michael Tilson Thomas. Overseas she is a return visitor to London's BBC Proms, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic, and recently made her Paris debut at the TMP/Chatelet.
Her film and television work includes her Emmy-nominated performance in HBO's Mike Nichols production of "Wit" (opposite Emma Thompson) and strong recognition for her portrayal of Grace Farrell in the made-for-television Disney production of "Annie." An exclusive recording artist for Nonesuch Records, McDonald's three solo discs ("Way Back to Paradise," "How Glory Goes" and "Happy Songs"), comprising both popular standards and contemporary music theater songs, have won a wide audience.
