Audra McDonald Makes Time's "Top 100" List of Most Influential People

Six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald has added another honor to her list of accomplishments: She has earned a spot in Time magazine's roster of the 100 Most Influential People of 2015.

The actress, singer, and Twitter legend was paid tribute in an essay by her Sound of Music LIVE! costar and seven-time Grammy winner Carrie Underwood, who wrote of McDonald, "Never afraid to stand up for what she believes, Audra is a strong voice speaking out for humane treatment of animals, dignity for the homeless and marriage equality."

McDonald, who returns to the stage this summer in the Williamstown Theatre Festival revival of A Moon for the Misbegotten (opposite her husband, Will Swenson), is currently shooting Disney's new live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast, in which she plays Garderobe, a lady-in-waiting turned into a wardrobe.

She won her first Tony for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical in 1994 for Carousel at Lincoln Center Theater and two additional Tony Awards in the Featured Actress category over the next four years for Master Class (1996) and Ragtime (1998). In 2004, she won her fourth Tony for A Raisin in the Sun, and in 2012 she won her fifth for her role in The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess. Most recently, McDonald made Broadway history after winning her sixth award for her portrayal of Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill. She'll next be seen on Broadway in 2016 in the new work Shuffle Along, or, The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Follows.

For tickets to see Audra McDonald in A Moon for the Misbegotten, click here.