Forest Whitaker Biography

It’s fitting that Whitaker’s debut role in 1982's seminal teen comedy ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’ with Nicolas Cage and Sean Penn, had him playing a football star. Forest was a star quarterback in high school and won a scholarship to play at California State Polytechnic University. After being sidelined with an injury, he transferred to the University of Southern California to study opera and drama.

After ‘Fast Times’, the versatile actor appeared in several acclaimed films throughout the 1980s, including ‘Platoon’, ‘Good Morning, Vietnam’, and ‘The Colour of Money’. In 1988, his turn as musician Charlie Parker in Clint Eastwood’s dark biopic ‘Bird’ won him the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival.

Whitaker, who already had a son, married actress Keisha Whitaker, who already had a daughter, in 1996 and they later added to their family with two more daughters.

Whitaker soon expanded to producing and directing, having particular success in television with such projects as 1993’s gritty urban film ‘Strapped’ for HBO and 2002’s Emmy-winning ‘Door to Door’ starring William H. Macy. He also directed for the big screen including 1995's ‘Waiting to Exhale’ and 2004's ‘First Daughter’. But proving ‘Bloodsport’ wasn’t a one off, he starred in the John Travolta disaster, ‘Battlefield Earth’ in 2000.

In 2006, Whitaker made several notable television appearances, including the role of a troubled internal affairs cop on FX’s award-winning ‘The Shield’ and a riveting turn as a stroke patient on ‘ER’. This was also the year he achieved a career high by picking up an Academy Award for best actor for his memorable portrayal of former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin Dada in the film ‘The Last King of Scotland’.

The British drama based on a novel by Giles Foden, which also starred James McAvoy and Gillian Anderson, landed Whitaker a host of other accolades for his leading role, including a Bafta, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award. The film's outstanding critical acclaim was followed by a triumphant performance at the box office.

Following the success of the movie, Whitaker went on to star in a variety of films including 2007’s ‘The Air I Breathe’, ‘Ripple Effect’ and ‘The Great Debaters’, as well as ‘Vantage Point’, ‘Street Kings’ and the English version of ‘Dragon Hunters’, all of which came out in 2008. Although none of them landed him any awards, he carried on with 2009's ‘Powder Blue’ and ‘Winged Creatures’ and had a voice role in the fantasy movie ‘Where the Wild Things Are’.

Teaming up with Jude Law and Liev Schreiber, Whitaker appeared in 2010 science fiction movie ‘Repo Men’ and joined Renée Zellweger for ‘My Own Love Song’, before starring in ‘The Experiment’ and ‘Our Family Wedding’ in the same year. Whitaker continues to be busy both on the silver screen and television.

Away from the camera, he pledged his support during Barack Obama’s campaign and became a member of the president’s committee of arts and humanities.