About Denzel Washington

Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr. was born on December 28, 1954, in Mount Vernon, New York. He is the middle child of three, born to Lennis, a beautician from Georgia, and Denzel Washington, Sr., a Pentecostal minister from Virginia. After high school, Washington pursued journalism at Fordham University but discovered his passion for acting through student drama productions. This led him to the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, though he left after a year to pursue acting professionally. His first paid acting role was in the stage production Wings of the Morning, in which he portrayed a historical figure, Mathias Da Sousa. Washington made his film debut in Carbon Copy (1981) and gained early recognition with his role as Dr. Philip Chandler in the hit medical series St. Elsewhere (1982), which he starred in for six years. His film career surged in 1989 when he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of a runaway slave in Glory. He continued to shine in roles based on real-life figures, including anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko in Cry Freedom (1987), Malcolm X in Malcolm X (1992), and boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter in The Hurricane (1999)..