Personal info
Known for
Actor
Gender
Male
Birthday
28 December
Location
New York, United States
Edit pageDenzel Washington
Biography
Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. (born December 28, 1954) is an American actor, producer, and director. Known for his versatile work spanning over four decades of screen and stage, he has been regarded as one of the best actors of his generation, with The New York Times naming him the greatest actor of the 21st century in 2020.
Washington has received several honors, including two Academy Awards, a Tony Award, three Golden Globe Awards, as well as the Cecil B. DeMille Award and AFI Life Achievement Award, and nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards.
After training at the American Conservatory Theater, 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 the war film A Soldier's Story (1984). Nominated for ten Academy Awards, he won Best Supporting Actor for playing an American Civil War soldier in Glory (1989) and Best Actor for playing a corrupt cop in Training Day (2001).
A prominent leading man, Washington has also starred in several other films, including Mo' Better Blues (1990), Mississippi Masala (1991), Philadelphia (1993), Courage Under Fire (1996), Remember the Titans (2000), Man on Fire (2004), Inside Man (2006), and American Gangster (2007). He starred in The Equalizer trilogy (2014–2023). Washington directed and starred in the films Antwone Fisher (2002), The Great Debaters (2007), and Fences (2016).
Washington made his Broadway debut in Checkmates (1988). He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for starring in the Broadway revival of August Wilson's play Fences in 2010. He later directed, produced, and starred in the film adaptation in 2016. Washington has since returned to Broadway in the revivals of Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun (2014) and the Eugene O'Neill play The Iceman Cometh (2018).
