Viola Davis to star in new Shonda Rhimes' TV show 'How to Get Away With Murder'

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Two-time Academy Award nominee Viola Davis is taking her formidable acting skills to the small screen.

The Help star has signed on for a new ABC show produced by Shonda Rhimes called How to Get Away With Murder.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, “The sexy, suspense-driven legal thriller centers on ambitious law students and their brilliant and mysterious criminal defense professor who become entangled in a murder plot that could rock their entire university and change the course of their lives.”

Davis has been cast in the lead role of Annalise DeWitt, a law professor and renowned criminal defense attorney who has been described as “manipulative” and “brilliant.”

Time will tell if Rhimes will be able to replicate the same success she’s had with another black female movie-star-driven drama Scandal, starring Kerry Washington.

Davis is just the latest African-American movie star to dabble in a recurring television role.

Halle Berry is set to star in the Steven Spielberg produced space drama Extant this fall for CBS.

Davis has appeared on episodic TV in the past. She’s appeared on Showtime’s United States of Tara, NBC’s Law & Order: SVU and City of Angels.

Stay tuned for more details on How to Get Away With Murder.