Forest Whitaker

Forest Whitaker

CountryUnited States United States
GenderMale
BirthdayJul 15, 1961
BiographyForest Steven Whitaker (born July 15, 1961) is an American actor, producer and director. His accolades include an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a British Academy Film Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

After making his film debut in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Whitaker went on to earn a reputation for intensive character study work for films, such as Platoon (1986), Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Bird (1988), The Crying Game (1992), Phenomenon (1996), Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999), The Great Debaters (2007), The Butler (2013), Arrival (2016), and Respect (2021). He has also appeared in Panic Room (2002), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) as Saw Gerrera, and Black Panther (2018) as Zuri.

Whitaker won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the historical drama The Last King of Scotland (2006). Whitaker made his directorial debut with the television film Strapped (1993), and directed the films Waiting to Exhale (1995), Hope Floats (1998), and First Daughter (2004). Since 2019, he has starred as Bumpy Johnson in the Epix crime drama series Godfather of Harlem.

He made his Broadway debut in the revival of Eugene O'Neill's Hughie (2016). Apart from his acting career, Whitaker is also known for his humanitarian work and activism. In 2011, he was inducted as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, later receiving a promotion to Special Envoy for Peace and Reconciliation, and serves as the CEO of Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative (WPDI), a non-profit outreach program.

Biography from the Wikipedia article Forest Whitaker. Licensed under CC-BY-SA. Full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known For

Part of Crew

Recently Updated Shows

Recently updated shows that might be of your interest.
The Great Christmas Light Fight
Running

The Great Christmas Light Fight

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas with the hit holiday decorating competition series, The Great Christmas Light Fight. Decorating their homes to the extreme for Christmas, families and neighborhoods across America compete to win a cash prize and the coveted Light Fight trophy.

The Curse of Oak Island
Running

The Curse of Oak Island

The Curse of Oak Island documents brothers Rick and Marty Lagina as they pursue their lifelong dream of solving more than a 220-year old Oak Island mystery. For over two centuries, teams of searchers, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, have attempted to crack the code that will unearth the treasure believed to be buried on the small island off the coast of Nova Scotia. Armed with the knowledge of those that came before them, the muscle of heavy machinery and decades of engineering know-how, the Lagina's and their partners may be closer than anyone in history to finding the treasure that has so far claimed the lives of six men.

Bad Monkey
Running

Bad Monkey

Bad Monkey tells the story of Andrew Yancy, a one-time detective demoted to restaurant inspector in Southern Florida. A severed arm found by a tourist out fishing pulls Yancy into the world of greed and corruption that decimates the land and environment in both Florida and the Bahamas. And yes, there's a monkey.

Brilliant Minds
Running

Brilliant Minds

Inspired by the extraordinary life and work of world-famous author and physician Oliver Sacks, Brilliant Minds follows a revolutionary, larger-than-life neurologist and his team of interns as they explore the last great frontier - the human mind - while grappling with their own relationships and mental health.

Black Mirror
Running

Black Mirror

Over the last ten years, technology has transformed almost every aspect of our lives before we've had time to stop and question it. In every home; on every desk; in every palm - a plasma screen; a monitor; a smartphone--a black mirror of our 21st Century existence. Black Mirror is a contemporary British re-working of The Twilight Zone with stories that tap into the collective unease about our modern world.