Audra McDonald Shares Emmy Win with SWEENEY TODD (LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER) for Outstanding Special Class Program

Live From Lincoln Center's telecast of SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET has won the Creative Arts Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class Program. The award is officially awarded to the following: Andrew Carl Will (Executive Producer), Allen Kelman (Supervising Producer), Douglas Chang (Producer), Elizabeth W. Scott (Producer), Audra McDonald (Host). Therefore, six-time Tony Award-winner McDonald, who also has two Grammy Awards, is now just an Oscar Award away from the coveted 'EGOT' distinction.

Starring Emma Thompson and Bryn Terfel, Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's SWEENEY TODD aired on PBS on September 26, 2014.

Set in Victorian London, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street tells the story of the eponymous barber who seeks vengeance on what he sees as a merciless world by murdering his customers and, with the help of his landlady, the romantically inclined Mrs. Lovett, bakes their bodies into meat pies, which are fed to London's avid and unknowing populace. Sondheim's score pays homage to the music of Hollywood composer Bernard Hermann. Highlights include "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd," "Not While I'm Around," "A Little Priest," and "Pretty Women." Music Director Alan Gilbert is the conductor, Grant Sturiale is the assistant conductor, Lonny Price is the director, Lonny Price and Matt Cowart are the producers and Josh Rhodes is the choreographer." The performance featured the talents of the New York Philharmonic.

More information on Live From Lincoln Center's SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET is available at the official site here.

Audra McDonald is unparalleled in the breadth and versatility of her artistry, as both a singer and an actress. With a record six Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards, and a long list of other accolades to her name, she is among today's most highly regarded performers.

McDonald received her classical vocal training at the Juilliard School. A year after graduating, she won her first Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for Carousel at Lincoln Center Theater. She received two additional TONY AWARDS in the featured actress category over the next four years for her performances in the Broadway premieres of Terrence McNally's Master Class (1996) and his musical Ragtime (1998), earning her an unprecedented three TONY AWARDS before the age of 30. In 2004 she won her fourth Tony, starring alongside Sean "Diddy" Combs in A Raisin in the Sun, and in 2012 she won her fifth-and her first in the leading actress category-for her role in The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess. In 2014 she made Broadway history and became the Tony Awards' most decorated performer when she won her sixth award for her portrayal of Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill. In addition to setting the record for most competitive wins by an actor, she also became the first person to receive awards in all four acting categories. McDonald's other theater credits include The Secret Garden (1993), Marie Christine (1999), Henry IV (2004), 110 in the Shade (2007), and her Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park debut in Twelfth Night alongside Anne Hathaway and Raúl Esparza (2009).

McDonald made her opera debut in 2006 at Houston Grand Opera, where she starred in a double bill: Poulenc's monodrama La voix humaine and the world premiere of its companion piece, Send, written by one of McDonald's frequent collaborators, Michael John LaChiusa. She made her Los Angeles Opera debut in 2007 starring alongside Patti LuPone in John Doyle's production of Kurt Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. The resulting recording won McDonald two Grammy Awards, for Best Opera Recording and Best Classical Album.

A familiar face on PBS, McDonald has headlined telecasts including an American Songbook season-opening concert, a presentation of Sondheim's Passion, a Rodgers and Hammerstein tribute concert titled Something Wonderful, and five galas with the New York Philharmonic: a New Year's Eve performance in 2006, a concert celebrating Sondheim's 80th birthday, Carnegie Hall's 120th anniversary concert, One Singular Sensation! Celebrating Marvin Hamlisch, and, most recently, Sweeney Todd. She was also featured in the PBS television special, A Broadway Celebration: In Performance at the White House, singing at the request of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. McDonald has appeared three times on the Kennedy Center Honors; been profiled by 60 Minutes, Today, PBS NewsHour, and CBS Sunday Morning; been a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman, the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, the Colbert Report, Charlie Rose, CBS This Morning, NewsNation with Tamron Hall, POLITICSNATION with Al Sharpton, Iron Chef America, the Megan Mullally Show, the Rosie O'Donnell Show, the TAVIS SMILEY Show, and the Wendy Williams Show; and has guest co-hosted on THE VIEW with Barbara Walters. In 2012, McDonald was named the new official host of the PBS series Live From Lincoln Center, which earned her a third Emmy nomination.

Of all her many roles, her favorites are the ones performed offstage: wife to her husband and mother to her daughter, Zoe Madeline.