Formal Booking Requisition

Talent Dossier

Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. was born on December 28, 1954, in Mount Vernon, New York, a suburb of New York City. His mother, Lennis "Lynne" (Lowe), was a beauty parlor owner and operator born in Georgia and partly raised in Harlem, New York. His father, Denzel Hayes Washington Sr., a native of Buckingham County, Virginia, was an ordained Pentecostal minister who was also an employee of the New York City Water Department, and worked at a local S. Klein department store. On a 2025 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Washington said his name was actually pronounced with the emphasis on the first syllable, but that his mother started pronouncing his name with the emphasis on the second syllable so he would respond when called and not his father.