She was honored with the National Medal of Arts in 2016 from President Barack Obama, and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2017.

She has received six Tony Awards for her roles in Carousel (1994), Master Class (1996), Ragtime (1998), A Raisin in the Sun (2004), Porgy and Bess (2012), and Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill (2014).

Her other Tony-nominated roles were in Marie Christine (2000), 110 in the Shade (2007), Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (2020), and Ohio State Murders (2023).

She received Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her roles in Wit (2001), A Raisin in the Sun (2008), and Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill (2016).

She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class Program for hosting Live from Lincoln Center (2015).

She maintains an active concert and recording career throughout the United States performing genres ranging from jazz standards to musical theatre.

McDonald was raised in her father's native Fresno, California, the elder of two daughters; her sister, Alison, writes and directs for television and film.

McDonald was a three-time Tony Award winner by age 28 for her performances in Carousel, Master Class, and Ragtime, placing her alongside Shirley Booth, Gwen Verdon and Zero Mostel by accomplishing this feat within five years.

She was nominated for another Tony Award for her performance in Marie Christine before she won her fourth in 2004 for her role in A Raisin in the Sun, placing her in the company of then four-time winning actress Angela Lansbury.

McDonald would later score her fifth Tony Award win for her portrayal of Bess in Broadway's The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, thus tying Angela Lansbury and Julie Harris,[11] and her 2014 performance as Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill would earn McDonald her sixth Tony award and make her the first person to win all four acting categories.

In 2001, she received her first Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for the HBO film Wit, which starred Emma Thompson and was directed by Mike Nichols.

[12] In 2003, McDonald starred as Sarah Langley in It Runs in the Family,[13] and as Jackie Brock in nine episodes of short-lived Mister Sterling.

[15][16] She sang with the New York Philharmonic in the annual New Year's Eve gala concert on December 31, 2006, featuring music from the films; it was televised on Live from Lincoln Center by PBS.

With her full lyric soprano voice,[18] McDonald appeared as Lizzie in the Roundabout Theatre Company's 2007 revival of 110 in the Shade, directed by Lonny Price at Studio 54, for which she shared the Drama Desk Award for Best Actress in a Musical with Donna Murphy.

Of her groundbreaking work in encouraging diversity in musical theatre casting, she said in an interview for The New York Times, "I refuse to be stereotyped.

"[21] In a Talk of the Nation interview on NPR, Asian-American actor Thom Sesma said McDonald's performance in Carousel "transcended any kind of type at all", proving her to be "more actress than African-American.

In 2007 she performed the role of Jenny Smith in Kurt Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at the Los Angeles Opera.

"[30] Since 2012, McDonald has served as host for the PBS series Live from Lincoln Center,[31] for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class Program with the show's producers for Sweeney Todd, airing in 2015.

[37] Of the play, McDonald said in an interview, "It's about a woman trying to get through a concert performance, which I know something about, and she's doing it at a time when her liver was pickled and she was still doing heroin regularly...I might have been a little judgmental about Billie Holiday early on in my life, but what I've come to admire most about her – and what is fascinating in this show – is that there is never any self-pity.

[41] McDonald received critical acclaim and was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her role in the broadcast.

[51][52] In 2017, McDonald starred in Disney's live action remake film Beauty and the Beast (based on the 1991 animated film of the same name) as Madame de Garderobe, directed by Bill Condon, and co-starring with Emma Watson and Dan Stevens, earning a nomination at the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture.

[54] McDonald stayed in the cast for the remaining seasons, and was nominated twice for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.

[69] In September 2008, American composer Michael John LaChiusa was quoted in Opera News Online, as working on an adaptation of Bizet's Carmen with McDonald in mind.

Her first, the 1998 Way Back to Paradise, featured songs written by a new generation of musical theatre composers who had achieved varying degrees of prominence in the 1990s, particularly LaChiusa, Adam Guettel and Jason Robert Brown.

[72] In May 2013, Audra McDonald released her first solo album in seven years, Go Back Home, with a title track from the Kander and Ebb musical The Scottsboro Boys.

She reprised the role in some performances of the March 2014 Lincoln Center concert production, again directed by Price, this time opposite Bryn Terfel and Emma Thompson.

She performed three concerts, titled "Audra McDonald Sings Broadway", in the Sydney Opera House in November 2015, which also included "The Facebook Song" by Kate Miller-Heidke.

[84] McDonald joined other Broadway stars including Lin-Manuel Miranda, Josh Groban, Idina Menzel, Laura Benanti, and Kristin Chenoweth in 2018 to record Singing You Home, a bilingual children's album designed to benefit organizations that aid families separated at the border.

Covenant House oversees programs for homeless youth in 27 cities in six countries across the United States, Canada, and Latin America.