If you’ve ever wondered why she’s such an ace at playing women from the South, it’s because of her homegrown roots. Davis was born in South Carolina, but grew up in Rhode Island, where she first started acting while in high school. She first attended Rhode Island College and then transferred to the Juilliard School of Performing Arts, before making her Broadway debut in 1996. She won her first Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play in 2001 for starring in August Wilson's “King Hedley II.”

After taking several guest appearances on various television shows including a role on the medical drama, “City of Angels” and playing a serial killed on “Law & Order,” Davis got a small part in the 2002 film, Antwone Fisher where she played Derek Luke’s mother. Her role, which had very little dialogue, was so stirring, it captured her an Independent Spirit Award nomination.

Davis got Hollywood’s attention again when she starred in the film adaptation of the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “Doubt.” The movie unfolds when a nun and principal (played by Meryle Streep) suspects a priest of having an inappropriate relationship with a student at the Catholic school she operates. Davis, who plays the mother of a son at the center of the alleged sexual abuse received her first Academy Award nomination for her incredibly heart-wrenching portrayal in the 2008 film.

In 2010, Davis returned to Broadway along with Hollywood heavyweight, Denzel Washington. The two star in August Wilson’s play “Fences,” where the two play a couple whose marriage starts to fall apart. It’s the beginning of a wonderful professional relationship on screen for the actors and friendship off-screen. Both Davis and Washington won Tony Awards for their work on “Fences” with Davis winning the Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play.

In one of her more controversial roles yet, Davis starred as Ailbileen in 2011’s, The Help in the film adaptation of the best-selling novel by Kathryn Stockett. Set in the 1960s, the film showcases the racial divide between Southern white housewives and their African American maids. It gave birth to one of Ailbileen’s most famous lines as she is speaking to the little white girl she helps to raise reminding her that, "You is smart, you is kind, you is important."

RELATED: Viola Davis Says She Betrayed Herself And Community With ‘The Help’ Role

Davis later admited toVanity Fair of her role in The Help that “Not a lot of narratives are also invested in our humanity. They’re invested in the idea of what it means to be Black, but…it’s catering to the white audience. The white audience at the most can sit and get an academic lesson into how we are. Then they leave the movie theater and they talk about what it meant. They’re not moved by who we were.”

In 2011, Davis and her husband, Julius Tennon, launched JuVee Productions, a multimedia company that intends to produce movies that alter the narrative of what Black life in America looks like.  Davis told the New Yorker in 2016, “It’s hard for people to see us beyond narratives that are didactic. I’m trying to change the landscape. And not just for me, for everyone.” JuVee’s productions is behind the films, Lila & Eve (2015) and Custody (2016) and working on a bio-pic, about civil-rights leader Barbara Jordan.

You would think that Davis would take a minute off to refresh her creative juices. Not a chance. Next, she appeared in the 2013 science fiction movie Ender’s Game with Harrison Ford followed by the 2014 biopic Get on Up, where she played James Brown’s mother. It was the first time she performed with actor Chadwick Boseman. 

In 2014, Davis decided to take her immeasurable talents to the small screen again and fans are shocked when she joins Shonda Rhimes’ Thursday night prime time drama “How to Get Away with Murder.” Davis plays Professor Annalise Keating, a Black woman who is typically suited from head to toe with perfect makeup, a modest wig, and a look that can take down any opponent. In one particular scene, however, Annalise brings new definition to Black women's vulnerability, a side that rarely gets seen on television.

The New York Times described it as, "After scrubbing her face clean, this gorgeous dark-skinned woman is stripped bare for the world to see: no contours, no filter, no mask to hide behind.  As Sam enters their bedroom, Annalise is finally ready to ask the question no wife should ever have to ask her spouse.

“Why is your penis on a dead girl’s phone?”

She killed (no pun intended) the role of Annalise until the series ended in 2020. 

In 2020, Davis channeled the spirit of the matriarch of the Blues, Ma Rainey in George C. Wolfe’s adaptation of the August Wilson play (now on Netflix) Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Behind the weight gain, the gold teeth, the Vaseline shine on her ebony skin, still shines Davis’ talent to slip into the soul of whomever she is playing.

RELATED: REVIEW: ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ Is A Trifecta Of Movie Watching Delights

Besides her NAACP Image Award nomination for Entertainer of the Year, Davis also picked up nominations for Best Actress in a drama series for “How to Get Away with Murder” and Best Actress in a motion picture for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”

Davis is doing more than ever. She has a number of projects coming up later this year including the next "Suicide Squad" film and the TV Series, "First Lady" where she will play Michelle Obama. 

During her 2015 Emmy where she became the first Black woman to win the award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, Davis said, "The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity. You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there.”

Glad to know she is now a part of the system creating those roles for other women of color to come.

Watch the 52nd annual NAACP Image Awards LIVE on BET on March 27 at 8 PM E/ 7PM C.