1954-12-28 Mount Vernon, New York, USA
Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. (born December 28, 1954) is an American actor, producer, and director. Known for his dramatic roles on stage and screen, he is widely regarded as one of the best actors of his generation, with The New York Times declaring him the greatest actor of the 21st century in 2020. Over his career, he has received several accolades, including two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Tony Award, as well as nominations for two Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award. Washington has been honoured with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2016, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2019, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2022. After training at the American Conservatory Theatre, Washington began his career in theatre, acting in performances off-Broadway. He first came to prominence in the NBC medical drama series St. Elsewhere (1982–1988) and in the war film A Soldier's Story (1984). He won two Academy Awards, his first for Best Supporting Actor for playing an American Civil War soldier in the war drama Glory (1989) and his second for Best Actor for playing a corrupt police officer in the crime thriller Training Day (2001). He was Oscar-nominated for his performances in Cry Freedom (1987), Malcolm X (1992), The Hurricane (1999), Flight (2012), Fences (2016), Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017), and The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021). A prominent leading man, Washington also acted in Mo' Better Blues (1990), Mississippi Masala (1991), Philadelphia (1993), Courage Under Fire (1996), Remember the Titans (2000), Man on Fire (2004), Inside Man (2006), American Gangster (2007), and The Equalizer trilogy (2014–2023). Washington directed and starred in the films Antwone Fisher (2002), The Great Debaters (2007), and Fences (2016). On stage, he has acted in productions of both Coriolanus (1979) and The Tragedy of Richard III (1990) at the Public Theater. He made his Broadway debut in the Ron Milner play Checkmates (1988). He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his role as a disillusioned working-class father in the Broadway revival of August Wilson's play Fences (2010). He has also acted in the Broadway revivals of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (2005), Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun (2014), and Eugene O'Neill's play The Iceman Cometh (2018).
![]() |
Denzel Washington: Falling Forward | 2025-10-20 | |
![]() |
Highest 2 Lowest | David King | 2025-08-14 |
![]() |
Gladiator II | Macrinus | 2024-11-13 |
![]() |
The Piano Lesson: Legacy and a Vision | Self | 2024-11-21 |
![]() |
Denzel Washington: American Icon | Self | 2024-10-24 |
![]() |
The Making of Gladiator II | Self | 2024-11-18 |
![]() |
The Equalizer 3 | Robert McCall | 2023-08-30 |
![]() |
Sidney | Self | 2022-09-10 |
![]() |
Whoopi Goldberg: The Winning Act | Self (archive footage) | 2022-02-15 |
![]() |
The Little Things | Joe 'Deke' Deacon | 2021-01-28 |
![]() |
Quentin Tarantino: From a Movie Buff to a Hollywood Legend | Self (archive footage) | 2021-01-02 |
![]() |
The Tragedy of Macbeth | Macbeth | 2021-12-05 |
![]() |
Giving Voice | Self | 2020-01-26 |
![]() |
Chadwick Boseman: A Tribute for a King | Self (archive footage) | 2020-08-30 |
![]() |
Denzel Washington: Reel Life | Self | 2018-08-17 |
![]() |
The Equalizer 2 | Robert McCall | 2018-07-19 |
![]() |
Roman J. Israel, Esq. | Roman J. Israel | 2017-11-17 |
![]() |
Chasing Trane | John Coltrane (voice) | 2017-04-14 |
![]() |
The Magnificent Seven | Sam Chisolm | 2016-09-14 |
![]() |
Fences | Troy Maxson | 2016-12-16 |
![]() |
The Equalizer | Robert McCall | 2014-09-24 |
![]() |
2 Guns | Robert 'Bobby' Trench | 2013-08-02 |
![]() |
Safe House | Tobin Frost | 2012-02-08 |
![]() |
Flight | Whip Whitaker | 2012-02-22 |
![]() |
Unstoppable | Frank Barnes | 2010-11-04 |
![]() |
The Book of Eli | Eli | 2010-01-14 |
![]() |
We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial | Self | 2009-01-18 |
![]() |
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 | Walter Garber | 2009-06-10 |
![]() |
Fallen Empire: Making 'American Gangster' | Self | 2008-10-14 |
![]() |
The Great Debaters | Melvin B. Tolson | 2007-12-25 |
![]() |
American Gangster | Frank Lucas | 2007-11-02 |
![]() |
Number 4 | Self | 2006-08-08 |
![]() |
Inside Man | Keith Frazier | 2006-03-17 |
![]() |
Déjà Vu | Doug Carlin | 2006-11-22 |
![]() |
By Any Means Necessary: The Making of 'Malcolm X' | Self | 2005-02-08 |
![]() |
Man on Fire | John W. Creasy | 2004-04-23 |
![]() |
The Manchurian Candidate | Major Bennett Ezekiel Marco | 2004-07-30 |
![]() |
The Evolution of an American Filmmaker | Self | 2003-05-20 |
![]() |
Out of Time | Matt Lee Whitlock | 2003-10-03 |
![]() |
John Q | John Quincy Archibald | 2002-02-15 |
![]() |
Antwone Fisher | Dr. Jerome Davenport | 2002-12-19 |
![]() |
Training Day | Alonzo | 2001-10-05 |
![]() |
Remember the Titans | Coach Herman Boone | 2000-09-29 |
![]() |
Straight from the Streets | Self | 2000-09-19 |
![]() |
The Hurricane | Rubin "Hurricane" Carter | 1999-09-17 |
![]() |
The Bone Collector | Lincoln Rhyme | 1999-11-04 |
![]() |
The Siege | Anthony 'Hub' Hubbard | 1998-11-06 |
![]() |
Fallen | John Hobbes | 1998-01-16 |
![]() |
He Got Game | Jake Shuttlesworth | 1998-05-01 |
![]() |
Mother Goose: A Rappin' and Rhymin' Special | Humpty Dumpty / The Crooked Man (voice) | 1997-10-12 |
![]() |
NBA at 50 | Self - Host | 1996-11-01 |
![]() |
Courage Under Fire | Lieutenant Colonel Nathaniel Serling | 1996-07-04 |
![]() |
The Preacher's Wife | Dudley | 1996-12-13 |
![]() |
Devil in a Blue Dress | Easy Rawlins | 1995-09-29 |
![]() |
Virtuosity | Parker Barnes | 1995-08-04 |
![]() |
Crimson Tide | Lt. Commander Ronald "Ron" Hunter | 1995-05-12 |
![]() |
The Making of 'Crimson Tide' | Self | 1995-01-01 |
![]() |
Much Ado About Nothing | Don Pedro of Aragon | 1993-05-07 |
![]() |
Philadelphia | Joe Miller | 1993-12-22 |
![]() |
The Pelican Brief | Gray Grantham | 1993-09-17 |
![]() |
Jammin': Jelly Roll Morton on Broadway | Narrator | 1992-11-02 |
![]() |
Malcolm X | Malcolm X | 1992-11-18 |
![]() |
Liberators: Fighting on Two Fronts in World War II | Narrator | 1992-11-11 |
![]() |
Ricochet | Nick Styles | 1991-10-04 |
![]() |
Rabbit Ears - Anansi | Narrator (voice) | 1991-08-17 |
![]() |
Mississippi Masala | Demetrius Williams | 1991-09-18 |
![]() |
Rabbit Ears - John Henry | Narrator (voice) | 1990-09-01 |
![]() |
Heart Condition | Napoleon Stone | 1990-02-02 |
![]() |
Mo' Better Blues | Bleek Gilliam | 1990-08-03 |
![]() |
Glory | Pvt. Trip | 1989-12-15 |
![]() |
The Mighty Quinn | Xavier Quinn | 1989-02-17 |
![]() |
The George McKenna Story | George McKenna | 1988-08-01 |
![]() |
For Queen & Country | Reuben | 1988-05-17 |
![]() |
Cry Freedom | Steve Biko | 1987-11-06 |
![]() |
Power | Arnold Billings | 1986-01-31 |
![]() |
License to Kill | Martin Sawyer | 1986-12-16 |
![]() |
A Soldier's Story | Private First Class Peterson | 1984-09-14 |
![]() |
Carbon Copy | Roger Porter | 1981-08-06 |
![]() |
Coriolanus | Roman Soldier / Volscian Soldier | 1979-03-31 |
![]() |
Flesh & Blood | Kirk | 1979-10-14 |
![]() |
Wilma | Robert Eldridge, age 18 | 1977-12-19 |
![]() |
Untitled Hannibal Project | Hannibal Barca | |
![]() |
Black Panther 3 | ||
![]() |
The Equalizer 4 | Robert McCall | |
![]() |
Here Comes the Flood | ||
![]() |
The Equalizer 5 | Robert McCall |