![925419 - EAT PRAY LOVE Viola Davis](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/viola-davis-eat-pray-love-fb.jpg?quality=85&w=2400)
Viola Davis made Oscars history this season when she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Rose Maxson in Fences. She not only became the first African-American woman with three Oscar nominations, surpassing Whoopi Goldberg, but she is also poised to become the first black actor—male or female—to win the Triple Crown of Acting (one each of a competitive Oscar, Emmy and Tony). A win for Davis would mean, above all, recognition of her fierce talent as a performer, but it would also give audiences another chance to enjoy one of her unfailingly powerful acceptance speeches. Here, TIME looks back at Davis’ most memorable roles.
![Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Donna Emmett, Law & Order: SVU, 2003-2008.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/viola-davis-law-and-order-svu.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![DOUBT Mrs. Miller in Doubt, 2008.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/viola-davis-doubt.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![united-states-of-tara-viola-davis](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/united-states-of-tara-viola-davis.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![925419 - EAT PRAY LOVE Delia Shiraz in Eat Pray Love, 2010.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/viola-davis-eat-pray-love.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Aibileen Clark in The Help, 2011.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/viola-davis-the-help.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Steel Town Nona Alberts in Won't Back Down, 2012.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/viola-davis-wont-back-down.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Nancy Birch in Prisoners, 2013.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/prisoners.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Viola Davis Susie Brown in Get On Up, 2014.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/viola-davis-get-on-up.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![ABC's "How to Get Away with Murder" - Season One Professor Annalise Keating in How to Get Away with Murder, 2014-present.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/viola-davis-how-to-get-away-with-murder.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![FBI Agent Carol Barrett in Blackhat, 2015.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/viola-davis-blackhat.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![SUICIDE SQUAD Amanda Waller in Suicide Squad, 2016.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/viola-davis-suicide-squad.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Film Review Fences Rose Maxson in Fences, 2016.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/viola-davis-fences.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
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