Tony Winner Audra McDonald & Broadway Alum Bradley Cooper Among Time's 100 Most Influential People

Six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald and recent The Elephant Man star Bradley Cooper are among Time’s 100 Most Influential People this year. Carrie Underwood, who starred opposite McDonald in NBC’s The Sound of Music Live! in 2013, and Tony nominee Oliver Platt, who first met Cooper on the set of Nip/Tuck, shared with the magazine why their peers deserve a place on the list.

“I knew from the moment I heard her angelic voice that I was in the presence of greatness,” Underwood recalls of McDonald. “But I feel the greatest legacy she will leave behind lies in the works she does for others.” In addition to her prolific stage and screen career, McDonald is a staunch advocate for marriage equality and recently joined the Covenant House International Board of Directors, which provides programming and shelter for homeless youths. McDonald will return to Broadway next year in Shuffle Along, Or, The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed.

“These are increasingly brave, eccentric, breathtakingly diverse performances,” Platt said of Cooper’s performances in Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle and The Elephant Man. “It’s hard to make people, especially your friends, forget who you are onscreen. But Bradley’s that good.” Cooper earned Oscar nominations for three consecutive years since 2013—not to mention a Broadway.com Audience Choice Award for his 2006 Great White Way debut in Three Days of Rain.

Additionally, the list includes upcoming Beauty and the Beast star and U.N. Women Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson and Oscar-winning Broadway alum Julianne Moore.