Denzel Washington
Since winning the EMMA Award (Film Actor)
Denzel Washington is an American Actor, Director and Producer. In 2002, Denzel directed his first film, the biographical drama Antwone Fisher, which he also starred in. Several hit films followed, including the 2004 films Man on Fire and The Manchurian Candidate and Spike Lee’s Inside Man in 2006.
In 2007, he portrayed Frank Lucas, a real-life heroin kingpin from Harlem, opposite Russell Crowe in American Gangster, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination.
Denzel continued to star in many critically acclaimed mainstream films, including The Equaliser trilogy, Flight, Fences, Gladiator 2 and 2 Guns.
In 2010, he starred in the Broadway revival of Fences, which earned him a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play.
Denzel played the leading role in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway in 2014, to critical acclaim, and starred in the Broadway revival of The Iceman Cometh in 2018, playing Theodore “Hickey” Hickman.
In 2016, Denzel received the Cecil B. DeMille Award, a Golden Globe Award for “outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment”. It was selected to receive the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2022 by then-President Joe Biden, but he missed the ceremony due to testing positive with COVID-19. Denzel eventually received this accolade on 4 January 2025.
Denzel is often widely considered one of the best actors of all time, and in 2020, The New York Times named him the most outstanding actor of the 21st century.
Background (Before 2002)
Denzel Washington was born in Mount Vernon, New York. His father is a Pentecostal minister (Denzel H. Washington, Sr), and his mother is a beauty shop owner (Lennis Washington).
When he was 14, Denzel attended Oakland Military Academy in Windsor, New York, where he excelled at basketball.
After graduating with a B.A. in 1977, he pursued further acting studies at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, where he stayed for a year before moving back to New York City.
Denzel had several successful stage performances during those years, including in A Soldier’s Play, for which he shared an Obie Award for distinguished ensemble performance in 1982.
Denzel made his feature film debut in the 1981 comedy A Carbon Copy. It appeared in several off-Broadway productions and in television movies before making his big break in the hit television medical drama St. Elsewhere in 1982.
