Denzel Washington
EMMA Supporter
Denzel Washington is an American Actor, Director and Producer who has worked on many groundbreaking films with passion and conviction. He had understood what EMMA’s work stood for, hence his support and association, as EMMA was there to create Generation Z role models, which ultimately leads to social cohesion within society and throughout the creative industries.
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.
In 1987, he portrayed the South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko in Cry Freedom, for which Denzel received his first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor and a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Drama.
Denzel went on to appear in several notable films throughout the 1990s, such as the 1992 biopic Malcolm X, for which he earned an Oscar nod for Best Leading Actor and his second Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in Drama. He won the Oscar for best supporting actor in Glory in 1999, a fantastic achievement, as the film’s theme dealt with civil war racial issues.
In 1993, Denzel starred in the films The Pelican Brief alongside Julia Roberts and Philadelphia, which has been credited with changing the national conversation about HIV/AIDS in America.
Denzel won another Golden Globe for Best Actor for his role in the 1999 sports drama The Hurricane, in which he played a former boxing champion falsely accused of murder. Denzel became the second black actor to win the Oscar award since Sidney Poitier in 1963.
In 2001, Denzel starred in the crime thriller Training Day, playing Alonzo Harris, a corrupt police officer training a rookie cop. The role earned him his second Oscar win, this time for Best Leading Actor.
Denzel has been the national spokesperson for Boys & Girls Clubs of America since 1992 and is a Lifetime Founder Member of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund.
Denzel continued to star in many critically acclaimed mainstream films, including The Equaliser trilogy, Flight, Fences, Gladiator 2 and 2 Guns.
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.
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.
