Actress Viola Davis became the first person to win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony award on Sunday (February 5), when she was presented with the award for the audio recording of her memoir Finding Me. With this victory, Davis became a member of the select group of individuals known as EGOT winners.
Davis is just the 18th person in the history of the world to achieve this accolade. She was ecstatic to celebrate the occasion on stage after being the third black woman to do so.
The performer, who is 57 years old, proclaimed triumphantly, “I got EGOT!” after learning that she had won a Grammy for the best audio book, narration, and storytelling CD.
Davis was awarded an Emmy in 2015 for her work on the television series How to Get Away with Murder. In 2017, she was presented with the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film Fences, and she also holds two Tony Awards, one each for Fences and King Hedley II.
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On Sunday, while she was accepting her Grammy award, she said, “Oh my God. I created this book to honor the six-year-old Viola, to honor her, to honor her life, her joy, her trauma, and her everything,” the author said of her motivation for penning the work.
Davis was the only woman to be considered for the award in her category this year, competing against such notable men as Lin-Manuel Miranda, Questlove, Mel Brooks, and Jamie Foxx.
Jennifer Hudson, Rita Moreno, Audrey Hepburn, and Whoopi Goldberg are among other notable people who have won the EGOT.
