Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. (born December 28, 1954) 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.  He has received several accolades, including two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Tony Award as well as nominations for two Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award. Washington has been honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2016, AFI Life Achievement Award in 2019, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2025.

After training at the American Conservatory Theater, Washington began his career in theater, acting in performances off-Broadway. He first came to prominence in the NBC medical drama series St. Elsewhere (1982–1988), and in the war film A Soldier's Story (1984). He won Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor for playing an American Civil War soldier in the war drama Glory (1989) and for Best Actor for playing a corrupt police officer in the crime thriller Training Day (2001). He was Oscar-nominated for his roles in Cry Freedom (1987), Malcolm X (1992), The Hurricane (1999), Flight (2012), Fences (2016), Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017), and The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021).

As a leading man, Washington has starred in the commercially successful films The Pelican Brief, Philadelphia (both 1993), Crimson Tide (1995), Remember the Titans (2000), Man on Fire (2004), Déjà Vu, Inside Man (both 2006), American Gangster (2007), Unstoppable, The Book of Eli (both 2010), Safe House (2012), 2 Guns (2013), and The Equalizer trilogy (2014–2023), among others. He has occasionally appeared in supporting roles, most notably in Gladiator II (2024). Washington made his directorial film debut with Antwone Fisher (2002) followed by The Great Debaters (2007), Fences (2016), and A Journal for Jordan (2021).

On stage, he has acted in productions of both Coriolanus (1979), and The Tragedy of Richard III (1990) at The Public Theater. He made his Broadway debut in the Ron Milner play Checkmates (1988). He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his role as a disillusioned working class father in the Broadway revival of August Wilson's play Fences (2010). He has also acted 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).