Hollywood actress Viola Davis has achieved the coveted EGOT status after bagging an award for the audiobook recording of her memoir Finding Me at the 65th Grammy Awards on February 6.
EGOT stands for Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony — four prestigious awards an artiste can win in the world of entertainment in the US.
Viola won an Oscar for the best supporting actress in 2017 for her performance in Fences. She had earlier won a Tony award for lead actress for the same role in the original play on Broadway. She won another Tony award for the best-featured actress in 2001 for her performance in the play King Hedley II. Viola bagged an Emmy in 2015 for her performance in the popular series How To Get Away With Murder.
Accepting the trophy on stage, Viola said, “Oh, my God! I wrote this book to honour the six-year-old Viola, to honour her, her life, her joy, her trauma, everything. And it has just been such a journey. I just EGOT!”
Viola is the 18th person to join the EGOT club, which consists of legends like Audrey Hepburn, Mel Brooks, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Whoopi Goldberg, Rita Moreno and John Gielgud.
The 57-year-old is also the sixth black person to get EGOT status after Whoopi Goldberg, Jennifer Hudson, John Legend, James Earl Jones, Harry Belafonte and Quincy Jones. Her EGOT feat comes at a time when Black History Month is being observed in the US.
