Viola Davis

Viola Davis

Viola Davis has enjoyed a career that has seen her work in the theatre and on the big screen and, with the role on the soon to be released Doubt, she is this week's one to watch.

Since kicking off her acting career in 1996 the actress has had a busy and varied career beginning, as many do, in television working on the likes if Judging Amy, City of Angels and Third Watch.

Her big screen debut came in 2001 in Kate & Leopold in a small role before moving back into television. Far From Heaven, alongside Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid, was next for the actress. 2002's role in the remake of sci-fi movie Solaris was a bigger role for Davis.

When psychologist Chris Kelvin is asked to investigate the unexplained behaviour of a small group of scientists aboard the space station Prometheus, he is shocked by what he finds upon his arrival. Kelvin discovers that his close friend, Gibarian, the mission's commander, has committed suicide.

Also, he finds out that the two remaining scientists onboard are exhibiting signs of extreme stress and paranoia, seemingly caused by the results of their examination of the planet Solaris.

Soon, Kelvin too becomes entrapped in the unique planet's mysteries. Solaris, somehow, presents him with a second chance at love and entreats him to change the course of a past relationship that has caused him overwhelming guilt and remorse. But can he really revisit the past and alter the course of events? Or is he fated to repeat its mistakes?

Despite the presence of George Clooney in the film was met by mixed reviews and was considered a box office failure.

Since then she has moved between television and small movie parts as well as working in the theatre, she won a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play for her portrayal of Tonya in King Hedley II.

However it is her performance in Doubt, alongside Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman, as Mrs Miller that looks set to propel the forty three year old actress to greater stardom.

Set in 1964, St. Nicholas in the Bronx. A vibrant, charismatic priest, Father Flynn (Academy Award® winner Philip Seymour Hoffman), is trying to upend the schools' strict customs, which have long been fiercely guarded by Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Academy Award® winner Meryl Streep), the iron-gloved Principal who believes in the power of fear and discipline.

The winds of political change are sweeping through the community, and indeed, the school has just accepted its first black student, Donald Miller.

But when Sister James (Academy Award® nominee Amy Adams), a hopeful innocent, shares with Sister Aloysius her guilt-inducing suspicion that Father Flynn is paying too much personal attention to Donald, Sister Aloysius sets off on a personal crusade to unearth the truth and to expunge Flynn from the school.

Now, without a shard of proof besides her moral certainty, Sister Aloysius locks into a battle of wills with Father Flynn which threatens to tear apart the community with irrevocable consequence.

For her role a string of award nominations have come her way at the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards as well as winning Best Breakthrough Performance at the National Board of Review USA as well as best Supporting Actress at the Black Reel Awards.

And off the back of this role she will next star in State of Play with Ben Affleck and Russell Crowe which is due out later this year.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw