John David Washington

Washington was born and raised in the Toluca Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. He is the oldest of four children born to actor Denzel Washington and actress and singer Pauletta Washington (née Pearson). John David, as a compound name, is his first name. At the age of seven, he played a student in Spike Lee's 1992 feature film Malcolm X, which starred his father in the title role.

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 began acting in 2015 in the role of Ricky Jerret in the HBO drama series Ballers. The series was well received by critics and continued for five seasons through 2019.

In September 2017, Washington was cast in the lead role of detective Ron Stallworth in Spike Lee's thriller feature film BlacKkKlansman, which was based on Stallworth's memoir. The film premiered on May 14, 2018, at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or. Although it did not win the Palme d'Or, it was awarded the Grand Prix by the festival jury. The film's U.S. theatrical release was on August 10, 2018, a date chosen to coincide with the one year anniversary of the Charlottesville rally. The film was a commercial success, earning Washington both Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. 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. He also appeared in The Old Man & the Gun, which was released on September 28, 2018, by Fox Searchlight Pictures.

After seeing Washington's work in BlacKkKlansman, director Christopher Nolan hand-picked him to star in his thriller film Tenet. 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." Released in September 2020, Tenet received mixed reviews. 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." For his performance, Washington won the Saturn Award for Best Actor.

Washington starred alongside Zendaya as the titular characters in the drama film Malcolm & Marie (2021), which had been filmed in secret during the COVID-19 pandemic. The film was released to mixed reviews, but Washington's performance received praise. He was cast in the role of Harold Woodman in the period film Amsterdam, directed by David O. Russell. Washington performed in a Broadway revival of August Wilson's The Piano Lesson beginning in September 2022 and ending in January 2023. He is set to reprise his role in a film adaptation of the play, which is being directed by his brother, Malcolm Washington. He starred in Gareth Edwards' 2023 film The Creator.