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Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. is an American actor, producer, and director. Known for his dramatic roles on stage and screen, The New York Times named him the greatest actor of the 21st century in 2020.
Denzel Washington born December 28, 1954, Mount Vernon, New York, U.S. is an American actor celebrated for his engaging and powerful performances. Throughout his career he has been regularly praised by critics, and his consistent success at the box office helped to dispel the outdated perception that African American actors could not draw mainstream white audiences. Washington won Academy Awards for his work in Glory 1989 and Training Day 2001.
Washington is named after his father, who was a Pentecostal minister in the Church of God in Christ, Inc. His mother, Lennis Washington, was a beautician who owned and operated several salons. His parents divorced when he was 14 years old, and his mother sent him to a military boarding school in upstate New York for high school.
Washington enrolled at Fordham University, initially as a premed major but changed his focus to journalism before deciding to join the theater program, where he had lead roles in student productions of The Emperor Jones and Othello. After graduating with a B.A. in 1977, Washington pursued further acting studies at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, where he stayed for a year before moving back to New York City. He had several successful stage performances in these years, most notably in A Soldier’s Play, for which he shared an Obie Award for distinguished ensemble performance in 1982.