Forest Whitaker Biography

Home Page | Biography | Trivia | Film and Career | Life Story | Filmography | Photos Gallery | Desktop Wallpapers | Quotes

Forest Whitaker, one of Hollywood’s most accomplished actors directors producers entrepreneurs, has showcased his talents in a multitude of demanding and diverse roles. Whitaker’s multimedia company, Spirit Dance Entertainment, includes film, television and music production and is based in the U.S and the UK. Spirit Dance in London, SD4UK, mentors black and Asian filmmakers.

Whitaker starred in Joel Schumacher’s Phone Booth for Twentieth Century Fox opposite Colin Farrell. He also toplined Fourth Angel, an action thriller set in London, opposite Jeremy Irons, which aired on Showtime. Last year, Whitaker appeared to critical acclaim opposite Ossie Davis in the Showtime original film Deacons of Defense, a docudrama about a secret black militia group in the 1960s.

Recently, he was the consulting producer and host of the high-profile remake of the television series The Twilight Zone, taking the role originated by the esteemed Rod Serling.

Whitaker is producing Doug Pray’s (Scratch) latest documentary entitled The Rig through Spirit Dance Entertainment. He is also producing Facts About Kate, a project for Fox Searchlight. In 2003 he executive produced Chasing Papi, the first major studio romantic comedy aimed squarely at the Hispanic moviegoing market, for Twentieth Century Fox.

Before that he starred in and executive produced Green Dragon, Spirit Dance Entertainment’s first feature film production, which won the Humanitas and Audience Awards at the South by Southwest Film Festival. He also produced Door to Door starring William H. Macy for TNT under the Spirit Dance banner.

The television film was nominated for two Golden Globes and one Emmy, and was honored by the American Film Institute. In 2001 Whitaker starred in and executive produced the TV mini-series Feast of All Saints, which won an Emmy and was nominated in two other categories.

In 1988, Whitaker was named Best Actor at The Cannes Film Festival for his brilliant portrayal of jazz legend Charlie Parker in Clint Eastwood’s Bird, a role for which he also received a Golden Globe nomination. Whitaker earned widespread recognition for his performance as ‘Jody,’ the hostage British soldier in Neil Jordan’s Academy-Award winning film The Crying Game.

On television, Whitaker garnered a CableACE Award nomination for his performance in the Showtime original film, Last Light, directed by Kiefer Sutherland. He also starred in the HBO presentation Criminal Justice, for which he earned a CableACE Award nomination, and The Enemy Within, for which he received a Screen Actor’s Guild nomination.

In 2000, Whitaker played the title role of a spiritual gangster in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, directed by Jim Jarmusch. The film premiered at the 1999 Cannes Festival and screened at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival to critical acclaim. Ghost Dog was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature. The film’s soundtrack was a co-venture with Spirit Dance.

Most recently in theaters, Forest starred in director David Fincher’s film The Panic Room, opposite Jodie Foster and Dwight Yoakam. Whitaker made his feature film directing debut with the critically acclaimed, boxoffice hit Waiting to Exhale for Twentieth Century Fox, starring Angela Bassett, Whitney Houston, Lela Rochon Fuqua and Loretta Devine.

He first gained recognition as a director for his debut film, the 1993 HBO original Strapped, for which he received Best New Director honors at the Toronto Film Festival. He directed the Twentieth Century Fox film Hope Floats, starring Sandra Bullock.

Whitaker also executiveproduced these films’ multi-platinum soundtracks, which sold over 12 million copies collectively and earned a combined total of 14 Grammy nominations. His short film, John Henry, was released in February 2002 for Black History Month in connection with Disney’s release of Return to Never Land.

In 2003, Whitaker became Executive Director of the Nodance Film Festival, a festival that celebrates the alternative digital film culture with an emphasis on first-time filmmakers and digital filmmaking. Originally held in Park City, Utah, Nodance has recently relaunched in Los Angeles and holds the distinction of being the world’s first DVD-projected film festival.

In 2006, Whitaker joined the cast of FX’s cop serial The Shield, as Lieutenant John Kavanaugh. Whitaker’s performance as the tormented internal affairs cop helped continue the show’s popularity among viewers.

Whitaker’s 2006 portrayal of Idi Amin in the film, The Last King of Scotland earned him positive reviews by critics as well as multiple awards and honors.To portray the dictator, Whitaker gained 50 pounds, learned to play the accordion, and immersed himself in research. He read books about Amin, watched news and documentary footage, and spent time in Uganda meeting with Amin’s friends, relatives, generals, and victims; he also learned Swahili and mastered Amin’s East African accent.

His performance earned him the 2007 Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, making him the fourth African-American actor in history to do so. For that same role, he was also recognized with a Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award, BAFTA Award, and accolades from the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the National Board of Review, and the Broadcast Film Critics Association among others.

In 2007, Whitaker played Dr. James Farmer Sr. in The Great Debaters, for which he received an Image Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor.

In 2008, Whitaker appeared in three films, first as a business man known only as Happiness, who likes butterflies, in the film The Air I Breathe. He also portrayed a rogue police captain in Street Kings, and a heroic tourist in Vantage Point.