Denzel Washington was born in December 28,1954 in Mount Vernon, New York. He was the middle child of the 3 children of a Pentecostal minister father and a beautician mother. After graduating from high school, Denzel enrolled at Fordham University intent on a career in journalism. However, he caught the acting bug while appearing in student drama productions and, upon graduation, he moved to San Francisco and enrolled at the American Conservatory Theater. He left A.C.T. after only one year to seek work as an actor. With his acting versatility and powerful sexual presence, he had no difficulty finding work in numerous television productions. He made his first big screen appearance in Carbon Copy (1981) with George Segal. Through the 1980s, he worked in both movies and television and was chosen for the plum role of "Dr. Chandler" in NBC's hit medical series Hôpital St. Elsewhere (1982), a role that he would play for 6 years. In 1989, his film career began to take precedence when he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of "Tripp", the runaway slave in Edward Zwick's powerful historical masterpiece Glory (1989).

Through the 1990s, Denzel co-starred in such big budget productions as L'affaire Pélican (1993); Philadelphia (1993); USS Alabama (1995); La femme du pasteur (1996) and À l'épreuve du feu (1996) - a role for which he was paid $10 million. His work in critically-acclaimed films continued simultaneously, with roles in Malcolm X (1992) and Hurricane Carter (1999) garnering him Oscar nominations for Best Actor, before he finally won that statuette in 2002 for his lead role in Training Day (2001). He continued to define his onscreen persona as the tough, no-nonsense hero through the 2000s in films like Inside Man - L'homme de l'intérieur (2006), Le livre d'Eli (2010), L'attaque du métro 123 (2009) and Sécurité rapprochée (2012).

Cerebral and meticulous in his film work, he made his debut as a director in 2002 with Antwone Fisher (2002); he also directed The Great Debaters (2007) in 2007. During this same time period, he also took on the role of producer for such films as Le livre d'Eli (2010) and Sécurité rapprochée (2012).

He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Pauletta Washington, and their 4 children.