John David Washington

John David Washington (birthname: John David Washington) has established himself as one of the most talented athlete-turned-actors of his generation. He first had a taste of the movie-acting life as an eight-year-old when Spike Lee cast him as an extra in a Harlem school scene in Malcolm X (1992), and then as an eleven-year-old in Carl Franklin’s version of Walter Mosley’s Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), starring Washington’s father, Denzel Washington.

During his pro football career, Washington also had a co-producer credit on another of his father’s movies, the Hughes Brothers’ The Book of Eli (2010). But these were minor forays into the movies; Washington’s true film debut was in 2017, in a supporting role in director RZA’s rap musical drama, Love Beats Rhymes, starring Azealia Banks, Lorraine Toussaint, Jill Scott, and Common, and released by Lionsgate.

In only his second feature, John David Washington nabbed the starring role—with co-stars Anthony Ramos and Kelvin Harrison Jr.–in writer-director Reinaldo Marcus Green’s feature debut, Monsters and Men (2018), a fictionalization of the killing of Eric Garner which premiered at the Sundance film festival and was released by Neon.

John David Washington’s breakthrough role—opposite Adam Driver, Topher Grace, Alec Baldwin, and Harry Belafonte–was undercover cop Stallworth in Spike Lee’s acclaimed KKK drama, BlacKkKlansman (2018), which won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival and the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for Lee and went on to earn over $93 million worldwide. Washington joined the supporting cast of writer-director David Lowery’s affecting crime drama, The Old Man and the Gun (2018), starring Robert Redford, Casey Affleck, Danny Glover, Tom Waits, Sissy Spacek, and Keith Carradine.

In a remarkable career leap, John David Washington scored the lead as a determined CIA agent in Christopher Nolan’s Byzantine, visually complex sci-fi thriller, Tenet (2020), with Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Michael Caine, and Kenneth Branagh. The film made history as the first wide-release studio film to be released in cinemas following the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, ultimately earning nearly $364 million worldwide.

Washington joined Zendaya for a two-hander—the first to be written, financed, and produced during the pandemic—by writer-director Sam Levinson, Malcolm & Marie (2021), once again earning Washington rave critical reviews. Washington’s next was in pure action mode, premiering at the Locarno Film Festival: Beckett (2021), directed by Ferdinando Cito Filomarino and co-starring Boyd Holbrook, Vicky Krieps, Alicia Vikander, and Michael Stuhlbarg.

In Amsterdam (2022), writer-director David O. Russell’s comedy-mystery for 20^th Century Studios, Washington headed a starry ensemble, including Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, Chris Rock, Anya Taylor-Joy, Zoe Saldana, Mike Myers, Michael Shannon, Timothy Olyphant, Andrea Riseborough, Taylor Swift, Matthias Schoenaerts, Alessandro Nivola, Rami Malek, and Robert De Niro.

Working with writer-director Gareth Edwards in sci-fi mode, John David Washington led a notable ensemble in 20^th Century Studios’ True Love (2023), co-starring Gemma Chan, Allison Janney, Ken Watanabe, and Marc Menchaca. Reuniting with dad Denzel, Washington co-starred in the role of Boy Willie opposite Samuel L. Jackson, Danielle Brooks, and Michael Potts in the film version of one of August Wilson’s most revered plays, The Piano Lesson (date to be announced).