Name
Denzel Washington
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1954-12-28 (72 years old)
Place of Birth
Mount Vernon, New York, USA
Biography
Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. (born December 28, 1954) is an American actor. Known for his dramatic roles on stage and screen, he has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, an Actor Award, two Golden Globes, two Silver Bears and a Tony Award, as well as nominations for a Grammy Award and two Primetime Emmy Awards. In 2020, The New York Times named Washington the greatest actor of the 21st century. He has also been honoured with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2016, AFI Life Achievement Award in 2019, the Honorary Palme d'Or in 2025, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2025. Films in which he has appeared have grossed over $5.1 billion worldwide.
After training at the American Conservatory Theater, Washington began his career in theatre, acting in Off-Broadway performances. 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). Washington won Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor for playing an American Civil War soldier in the war drama Glory (1989) and for Best Actor for playing a corrupt police officer in the crime thriller Training Day (2001). He was Oscar-nominated for his roles 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).
Washington has starred in other notable films, including The Pelican Brief, Philadelphia (both 1993); Crimson Tide, Devil in a Blue Dress (both 1995); He Got Game (1998); Remember the Titans (2000); Man on Fire (2004); Déjà Vu, Inside Man (both 2006); American Gangster (2007); Unstoppable, The Book of Eli (both 2010); The Equalizer trilogy (2014–2023), Gladiator II (2024), and Highest 2 Lowest (2025). Washington has also directed the films Antwone Fisher (2002), The Great Debaters (2007), Fences (2016), and A Journal for Jordan (2021).
On stage, he has acted in The Public Theater productions of Coriolanus (1979) and The Tragedy of Richard III (1990). 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) and Othello (2025), Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun (2014), and Eugene O'Neill's play The Iceman Cometh (2018).
Known For
7.5
On his first day on the job as a narcotics officer, a rookie cop works with a rogue detect...
7.297
McCall believes he has put his mysterious past behind him and dedicated himself to beginni...
6.59
Years after witnessing the death of the revered hero Maximus at the hands of his uncle, Lu...
7.3
Robert McCall finds himself at home in Southern Italy but he discovers his friends are und...
6.797
Robert McCall, who serves an unflinching justice for the exploited and oppressed, embarks ...
7.598
Loosely based on the criminal career of Frank Lucas, a gangster from La Grange, North Caro...
5.485
When a titan music mogul, widely known as having the "best ears in the business", is targe...
6.811
A post-apocalyptic tale, in which a lone man fights his way across America in order to pro...
- 2006 Inside Man as Keith Frazier
- 2001 Training Day as Alonzo
- 2003 Out of Time as Matt Lee Whitlock
- 1992 Malcolm X as Malcolm X
- 2000 Remember the Titans as Coach Herman Boone
- 1996 Courage Under Fire as Lieutenant Colonel Nathaniel Serling
- 1999 The Hurricane as Rubin "Hurricane" Carter
- 2010 The Book of Eli as Eli
- 2007 American Gangster as Frank Lucas
- 1989 The Mighty Quinn as Xavier Quinn
- 1996 The Preacher's Wife as Dudley
- 2006 Déjà Vu as Doug Carlin
- 2002 John Q as John Quincy Archibald
- 1993 Much Ado About Nothing as Don Pedro
- 1995 Devil in a Blue Dress as Easy Rawlins
- 1995 Crimson Tide as Lt. Commander Ronald "Ron" Hunter
- 1998 Fallen as John Hobbes
- 1998 He Got Game as Jake Shuttlesworth
- 1999 The Bone Collector as Lincoln Rhyme
- 2004 Man on Fire as John W. Creasy
- 1995 Virtuosity as Parker Barnes
- 1991 Ricochet as Nick Styles
- 1984 A Soldier's Story as Private First Class Peterson
- 1993 The Pelican Brief as Gray Grantham
- 1993 Philadelphia as Joe Miller
- 1987 Cry Freedom as Steve Biko
- 1989 Glory as Pvt. Trip
- 1998 The Siege as Anthony 'Hub' Hubbard
- 2002 Antwone Fisher as Dr. Jerome Davenport
- 2024 Gladiator II as Macrinus
- 2007 The Great Debaters as Melvin B. Tolson
- 2004 The Manchurian Candidate as Major Bennett Ezekiel Marco
- 1991 Mississippi Masala as Demetrius Williams
- 1990 Heart Condition as Napoleon Stone
- 1990 Mo' Better Blues as Bleek Gilliam
- 1988 The George McKenna Story as George McKenna
- 1988 For Queen & Country as Reuben
- 2010 Unstoppable as Frank Barnes
- 2009 The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 as Walter Garber
- 1986 Power as Arnold Billings
- 1986 License to Kill as Martin Sawyer
- 2023 The Equalizer 3 as Robert McCall
- 1981 Carbon Copy as Roger Porter
- 2012 Safe House as Tobin Frost
- 2014 The Equalizer as Robert McCall
- 2013 2 Guns as Robert 'Bobby' Trench
- 2012 Flight as Whip Whitaker
- 2025 Highest 2 Lowest as David King
- 2016 The Magnificent Seven as Sam Chisolm
- 2018 The Equalizer 2 as Robert McCall
- 1991 Rabbit Ears - Anansi as Narrator (voice)
- 1990 Rabbit Ears - John Henry as Narrator (voice)
- 1977 Wilma as Robert Eldridge, age 18
- 1979 Coriolanus as Roman Soldier / Volscian Soldier
- 1979 Flesh & Blood as Kirk
- 1997 Mother Goose: A Rappin' and Rhymin' Special as Humpty Dumpty / The Crooked Man (voice)
- 2005 By Any Means Necessary: The Making of 'Malcolm X' as Self
- 2022 Sidney as Self
- 2020 Giving Voice as Self
- 2016 Fences as Troy Maxson
- 1992 Liberators: Fighting on Two Fronts in World War II as Narrator (voice)
- 2017 Chasing Trane as John Coltrane (voice)
- 2017 Roman J. Israel, Esq. as Roman J. Israel
- 1992 Jammin': Jelly Roll Morton on Broadway as Narrator (voice)
- 2021 The Tragedy of Macbeth as Macbeth
- 2021 The Little Things as Joe 'Deke' Deacon
- 2009 We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial as Self
- 2020 Chadwick Boseman: A Tribute for a King as Self (archive footage)
- 2021 Quentin Tarantino: From a Movie Buff to a Hollywood Legend as Self (archive footage)
- 2024 Denzel Washington: American Icon as Self
- 2000 Straight from the Streets as Self
- 2024 The Making of Gladiator II as Self
- 2024 The Piano Lesson: Legacy and a Vision as Self
- 1995 The Making of 'Crimson Tide' as Self
- 2003 The Evolution of an American Filmmaker as Self
- Soon Here Comes the Flood as Carter
- 2022 Whoopi Goldberg: The Winning Act as Self (archive footage)
- 2008 Fallen Empire: Making 'American Gangster' as Self
- 2018 Denzel Washington: Reel Life as Self
- 1996 NBA at 50 as Self - Host
- 2025 Denzel Washington: Falling Forward
- Soon American Gangster Special as Self
- 1994 Sesame Street | All-Star 25th Birthday: Stars and Street Forever! as Self (archive footage)
- Soon Untitled Hannibal Film as Hannibal the Great
- 1988 Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute as Self
- 2004 People Like Us: Making 'Philadelphia' as Self (archive)
- 2002 Behind the Scenes of 'John Q' as Self
- 2028 Black Panther 3
- 2021 Val as Self (archive)
- 2022 Whitney, a Look Back as Self (archive footage)
- 2026 Romare Bearden: A Life in Collage as self
- 1994 A Century of Cinema as Self
- Soon Training Day: Crossing the Line
- 1982 St. Elsewhere ( 137 episodes ) as Philip Chandler
- 1988 LIVE with Kelly and Mark ( 5 episodes ) as Self
- 1952 Today ( 2 episodes ) as Self
- 1992 The Tonight Show with Jay Leno ( 2 episodes )
- 1999 The Early Show ( 2 episodes ) as Self - Guest
- 1989 ZDF-Mittagsmagazin ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1973 The American Film Institute Salute to ... ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1953 The Oscars ( 9 episodes ) as Self
- 1981 Wetten, dass..? ( 2 episodes ) as Self
- 1988 LIVE with Kelly and Mark ( 1 episode ) as Self - Guest
- 1982 Wogan ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1995 Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child ( 1 episode ) as King Omar (voice)
- 1995 Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child ( 1 episode ) as Humpty Dumpty / Crooked Man (voice)
- 2005 The Reichen Show ( 1 episode ) as Self - Guest
- 1984 Goldene Kamera ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1988 American Experience ( 1 episode ) as Narrator (voice)
- 1997 The View ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1998 TRL ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 2003 The Ellen DeGeneres Show ( 3 episodes ) as Self
- 2009 Live from Studio Five ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 2013 Circus Halligalli ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 2014 The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 2015 Close Up with The Hollywood Reporter ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 2004 On Air with Ryan Seacrest ( 2 episodes ) as Self
- 2007 The Graham Norton Show ( 6 episodes ) as Self
- 1971 Great Performances ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1979 CBS News Sunday Morning ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1944 Golden Globe Awards ( 2 episodes ) as Self - Presenter
- 1944 Golden Globe Awards ( 5 episodes ) as Self - Nominee
- 1973 The American Film Institute Salute to ... ( 1 episode ) as Self - Honoree
- 2025 Number One on the Call Sheet ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 2015 The Late Show with Stephen Colbert ( 1 episode ) as Self - Guest
- 2003 Jimmy Kimmel Live! ( 2 episodes ) as Self - Guest
- 1956 Tony Awards ( 1 episode ) as Self - Presenter
- 1956 Tony Awards ( 1 episode ) as Self - Winner / Presenter
- 1956 Tony Awards ( 1 episode ) as Self - Nominee
- 1979 Flesh & Blood ( 2 episodes ) as Kirk
- 1993 Late Show with David Letterman ( 1 episode ) as Self - Guest
- 2024 Hollywood Black ( 4 episodes ) as Self (archive footage)
- 2003 Jimmy Kimmel Live! ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1992 The Tonight Show with Jay Leno ( 1 episode ) as Self - Guest
- 2004 Parkinson ( 1 episode ) as Self - Guest
