Viola Davis has achieved rare and coveted EGOT status – becoming the third black woman in history to earn the honor.
On Sunday, the 57-year-old actress won her first Grammy for her performance of the audiobook of her memoir “Finding Me.”
“It’s just been such a trip,” Davis said as he accepted the award. “I’m from EGOT!”
The term “EGOT” awards refers to people who have won Emmys, Grammys, Oscars, and Tonys during their entertainment careers. Only 18 people have achieved the status, and Davis is the fourth black person alongside Whoopi Goldberg, John Legend and Jennifer Hudson to complete the EGOT.
Davis already has an Oscar, two Tony’s and an Emmy.
“Oh my God,” Davis said Sunday. “I wrote this book to honor 6-year-old Viola, to honor her, to honor her life, her joy, her trauma, everything.”
Davis won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 2017 for her role as housewife Rose Maxson in “Fences” in 2016. She won an Emmy in 2015 for her role as Annalize Keating in “How to Get Away with Murder,” making her the first black woman to win the Leading Drama Actress award. She has two Tony Awards, one for “King Hedley II” and the Broadway production of “Fences.”
Davis reflected on her career and Grammy nod in a January interview, and said achieving EGOT status would be a “huge achievement.”
“I think everyone wants their life to mean something,” she said. “I believe in the blessing of Cherokee birth, which is, ‘May you live long enough to know what you were born for.’ I believe you literally want to punch a hole in this world any way you can.
“A lot of people don’t know how to do this. A lot of people haven’t found that one thing they are passionate about, that they can do. Some have. But we are all looking for that, to make a hole in this earth before leaving it. I think about it a lot in my work. I really found this thing that I love to do. So I still want it to make sense.
