Denzel Washington (with a birthdate of December 28, 1954) is an American actor, producer, and director. Known for his dramatic roles on stage and screen, he is often seen as one of the top actors of his generation, with The New York Times calling him the greatest actor of the 21st century in the year 2020. Over his career he has received several accolades, including two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Tony Award as well as nominations for Emmys and a Grammy. He received the 2016 Cecil B. DeMille Award, AFI Life Achievement Award in 2019, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2022). After training at the American Conservatory Theater, he launched his career in theater, with roles in off-Broadway productions. He gained early fame in the NBC medical drama series *St. Elsewhere* (between 1982 and 1988), and in the war film *A Soldier's Story* (in 1984). He has two Academy Awards to his name, his first for 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 cop in the crime thriller *Training Day* (released in 2001). He was received Oscar nominations for his performances in *Cry Freedom* (from 1987), *Malcolm X* (released in 1992), *The Hurricane* (from 1999), *Flight* (2012), *Fences* (2016), *Roman J. Israel, Esq.* (2017), and *The Tragedy of Macbeth* (2021). As a major leading actor, Washington also acted in films such as *Mo' Better Blues* (in 1990), *Mississippi Masala* (released in 1991), *Philadelphia* (in 1993), *Courage Under Fire* (1996), *Remember the Titans* (from 2000), *Man on Fire* (2004), *Inside Man* (2006), *American Gangster* (from 2007), and The Equalizer trilogy (from 2014 to 2023). Washington directed and starred in the films *Antwone Fisher* (2002), *The Great Debaters* (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* (in 1988). He received a Tony Award for Best Actor on Broadway for his role as a disillusioned working-class father in the Broadway revival of the play *Fences* by August Wilson (from 2010). He has also appeared 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).