Denzel Washington (born December 28, 1954) is an American actor, producer, and director. Famed for his dramatic roles in film and theater, he is widely regarded as one of the best actors of his generation, with The New York Times calling him the greatest actor of the 21st century in 2020. He has won several prestigious awards over his career, including two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Tony Award along with nominations in two Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award. He received the Cecil B. DeMille Award (2016), AFI Life Achievement Award (2019), and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2022). After studying at the American Conservatory Theater, he started his acting career in theater, acting in performances off-Broadway. He was first recognized widely in the NBC medical drama series *St. Elsewhere* (from 1982 to 1988), and in the war film *A Soldier's Story* (released in 1984). He has two Academy Awards to his name, his first for Best Supporting Actor for playing a soldier during the Civil War in the war drama *Glory* (released in 1989) and his second for Best Actor for playing a corrupt police officer in the crime thriller *Training Day* (2001). He was received Oscar nominations for his performances in *Cry Freedom* (released in 1987), *Malcolm X* (1992), *The Hurricane* (in 1999), *Flight* (2012), *Fences* (from 2016), *Roman J. Israel, Esq.* (2017), and *The Tragedy of Macbeth* (2021). A prominent leading man, Washington appeared in films such as *Mo' Better Blues* (released in 1990), *Mississippi Masala* (1991), *Philadelphia* (in 1993), *Courage Under Fire* (1996), *Remember the Titans* (in 2000), *Man on Fire* (released in 2004), *Inside Man* (2006), *American Gangster* (released in 2007), and the *Equalizer* films (released from 2014 to 2023). Washington directed and starred in the films *Antwone Fisher* (from 2002), *The Great Debaters* (from 2007), and *Fences* (from 2016). In theater, Washington has appeared in productions like *Coriolanus* (1979) and *The Tragedy of Richard III* (1990) at New York’s Public Theater. He made his Broadway debut in the Ron Milner play *Checkmates* (1988). He earned the Tony Award for Best Actor in the Play category for his role as a disheartened blue-collar father in the Broadway revival of August Wilson's play *Fences* (released in 2010). He has also starred in the Broadway revivals of William Shakespeare's *Julius Caesar* (2005), Lorraine Hansberry's play *A Raisin in the Sun* (2014), and Eugene O'Neill's play *The Iceman Cometh* (2018).