John David Washington

Washington was born and raised in the Toluca Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, the son of actor Denzel Washington and actress and singer Pauletta Washington (née Pearson); he is the oldest of their four children.[1][2] At the age of seven he appeared as a student in a Harlem classroom in Spike Lee's 1992 feature film Malcolm X, which starred his father, Denzel, in the title role.[3]

Washington attended Campbell Hall School in Los Angeles, where he was a letterman in football, basketball, and track. He graduated from high school in 2002 and from Morehouse College in 2006.

Washington returned to acting in 2015 in the role of Ricky Jerret in the HBO drama series Ballers.[10] The series was well-received by critics,[11] and continued on for five seasons through 2019. In September 2017, Washington was cast in the lead role of detective Ron Stallworth in Spike Lee's thriller BlacKkKlansman, which was based on Stallworth's memoir.[12] The film premiered on May 14, 2018 at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or.[13][14] BlacKkKlansman did not win the Palme d'Or, but was awarded the Grand Prix by the festival jury. The film began a U.S. theatrical release on August 10, 2018, a date chosen to coincide with the one year anniversary of the Charlottesville rally.[15] The film was a commercial success, earning Washington both Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.[16][17] In 2018, Washington also starred in the films Monsters and Men and Monster, both of which screened in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.[18][19][20] He also appeared in The Old Man & the Gun, which was released on September 28, 2018 by Fox Searchlight Pictures.[21]

After seeing Washington's work in BlacKkKlansman, director Christopher Nolan hand-picked him to anchor his spy film, Tenet (2020).[22] Nolan said of the actor, "[He's] just one of the greatest collaborators I've worked with: extraordinarily hard-working, very, very thoughtful, and very considerate of everybody around him in the most wonderful way."[23] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone praised Washington's "star-in-the-making" performance, writing, "A former football running back, the actor brings a natural athletic grace to the stunts and hand-to-hand combat that forge a visceral bond between his character and the audience."[24]

Washington starred alongside Zendaya as the titular characters in the drama film Malcolm & Marie, which had been filmed in secret during the COVID-19 pandemic.[25]

• "John David Washington". Just Sports Stats.
• John David Washington at IMDb