Vancouver child actor and filmmaker Denzel Onaba's talent, confidence, wisdom and career vision stretch far beyond his young age, and he is already making an indelible mark on the entertainment industry. Just like Academy Award-winning actor Denzel Washington, for whom he was named, Denzel Onaba is not only a consummate professional, but is extremely good-natured. Denzel made his on-screen debut in the award-winning 2021 video short Just Break Away (2021). As an actor, writer, filmmaker, director and musician, Denzel seeks to integrate his Afro-Canadian heritage into his craft whenever possible. Playing the role of a Black child and honouring Black struggles, he has broken down stereotypes in several short films by showcasing Black children as capable, talented and resilient trendsetters. Denzel has appeared in the Hallmark TV movie A Godwink Christmas: Miracle of Love (2021), an episode of the SYFY series Resident Alien (2021) , as well as six educational videos for the Canadian Mental Health Association, multiple short films, commercials (including the aforementioned Just Break Away, Clearly and Walmart), and several music videos. Denzel has always been homeschooled and is a member of an online youth entrepreneurship program hosted by the Black Business Association of BC. While helping to rewrite the African diasporic narrative in Canadian film and television, his work has continued without interruption, despite pandemic industry challenges. Denzel's impressive repertoire also includes portraying the younger version of 'Adewolf,' a Nigerian Rapper and 'Young Simon' in Kinky Boots, his first musical theatre production, as well as several additional high-profile television and film roles. In 2021, Denzel co-directed an epic 4-minute film called Sawabona (2021) and was featured on Global News as one of the youngest participants in Run-N-Gun, a 48-hour filmmaking competition. The film was given its African title, which means "I SEE YOU," to reflect the integration of cultures. This powerful short has been screened at festivals including the 2021 Vancouver Black Film Festival and the Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center (BHERC) Youth Diversity Film Festival. Following in the interest of movie making Denzel attended and excelled at the Gabriola Arts Society Film Maker's Camp in 2021 and has been described as "unequivocally one of the best child actors I've ever worked with." - Devon Mussett, Freelance Film Director. Omi (2021) (the Yoruba word for water), a folktale about mami water horrors created for Hulu and 20thDigital, features Denzel in the leading role and has an all Black cast. Paganono is another short film in which Denzel has challenged the contemporary image of Black people, this time with his portrayal of a Black child who primarily uses American Sign Language, runs away from home after his mother's death and ultimately overcomes impossible odds to become a famous classical violinist. Denzel maintains regular private coaching with Natalie Moon Coaching and has studied acting at Biz Studio, Just Be Acting Studio, Screen Acting School, 54th Acting Studio, New Image College, Ignite Artists, and; voiceover at On The Mic; singing at Ricardo Music Studio and Rise and Shine Music Studio, as well as private ukulele classes with Mark Luongo. The first male child born in over a century throughout his maternal bloodline, Denzel has a complex symphony of culture embedded into his DNA. His dad Mark is from Uganda and his mom Lara is from Nigeria, born to a Canadian mother and Yoruba father. In Yoruba, the name 'Ayodele' means 'joy has come home,' and with his rich cultural heritage Denzel has shown that joy can come home to wherever in the world that might be. Off-set Denzel enjoys spending days playing with his younger sister Jazlyn Onaba, reading novels, playing video games and football, BMX biking, doing gymnastics, watching documentaries, learning about animals, and enjoying everything related to Harry Potter. In 2021, Denzel placed 2nd on the Championship List for Monologue Slam-National.
Denzel Quirke is known for Aquaman (2018).
Denzel Hayes Washington, Jr. was born on December 28, 1954 in Mount Vernon, New York. He is the middle of three children of a beautician mother, Lennis, from Georgia, and a Pentecostal minister father, Denzel Washington, Sr., from Virginia. After graduating from high school, Denzel enrolled at Fordham University, intent on a career in journalism. However, he caught the acting bug while appearing in student drama productions and, upon graduation, he moved to San Francisco and enrolled at the American Conservatory Theater. He left A.C.T. after only one year to seek work as an actor. His first paid acting role was in a summer stock theater stage production in St. Mary's City, Maryland. The play was "Wings of the Morning", which is about the founding of the colony of Maryland (now the state of Maryland) and the early days of the Maryland colonial assembly (a legislative body). He played the part of a real historical character, Mathias Da Sousa, although much of the dialogue was created. Afterwards he began to pursue screen roles in earnest. With his acting versatility and powerful presence, he had no difficulty finding work in numerous television productions. He made his first big screen appearance in Carbon Copy (1981) with George Segal. Through the 1980s, he worked in both movies and television and was chosen for the plum role of Dr. Philip Chandler in NBC's hit medical series St. Elsewhere (1982), a role that he would play for six years. In 1989, his film career began to take precedence when he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Tripp, the runaway slave in Edward Zwick's powerful historical masterpiece Glory (1989). Washington has received much critical acclaim for his film work since the 1990s, including his portrayals of real-life figures such as South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko in Cry Freedom (1987), Muslim minister and human rights activist Malcolm X in Malcolm X (1992), boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter in The Hurricane (1999), football coach Herman Boone in Remember the Titans (2000), poet and educator Melvin B. Tolson in The Great Debaters (2007), and drug kingpin Frank Lucas in American Gangster (2007). Malcolm X and The Hurricane garnered him Oscar nominations for Best Actor, before he finally won that statuette in 2002 for his lead role in Training Day (2001). Through the 1990s, Denzel also co-starred in such big budget productions as The Pelican Brief (1993), Philadelphia (1993), Crimson Tide (1995), The Preacher's Wife (1996), and Courage Under Fire (1996), a role for which he was paid $10 million. He continued to define his onscreen persona as the tough, no-nonsense hero through the 2000s in films like Out of Time (2003), Man on Fire (2004), Inside Man (2006), and The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009). Cerebral and meticulous in his film work, he made his debut as a director with Antwone Fisher (2002); he also directed The Great Debaters (2007) and Fences (2016). In 2010, Washington headlined The Book of Eli (2010), a post-Apocalyptic drama. Later that year, he starred as a veteran railroad engineer in the action film Unstoppable (2010), about an unmanned, half-mile-long runaway freight train carrying dangerous cargo. The film was his fifth and final collaboration with director Tony Scott, following Crimson Tide (1995), Man on Fire (2004), Déjà Vu (2006) and The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3. He has also been a featured actor in the films produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and has been a frequent collaborator of director Spike Lee. In 2012, Washington starred in Flight (2012), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. He co-starred with Ryan Reynolds in Safe House (2012), and prepared for his role by subjecting himself to a torture session that included waterboarding. In 2013, Washington starred in 2 Guns (2013), alongside Mark Wahlberg. In 2014, he starred in The Equalizer (2014), an action thriller film directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by Richard Wenk, based on the television series of same name starring Edward Woodward. During this time period, he also took on the role of producer for some of his films, including The Book of Eli and Safe House. In 2016, he was selected as the recipient for the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award at the 73rd Golden Globe Awards. He lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife, Pauletta Washington, and their four children.
Denzel Whitaker was born on June 15, 1990 in Torrance, California, USA. He is known for The Great Debaters (2007), Black Panther (2018) and Training Day (2001).
Denzil Smith is a versatile Anglo-Indian actor, known for playing the role of Jinnah in Viceroy's House (2017), The Lunchbox (2013), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) and The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015), the Emmy award-winning television series Delhi Crime (2019) and P.O.W. Bandi Yuddh Ke (2016-17) as Lala for which he won the Indian Television Academy Award Best Actor in a Negative Role (2017). Based in Mumbai, Smith began his acting career on stage in 1988 with Pearl Padamsee's Les Liaisons Dangereuse where he first worked with Naseeruddin Shah, becoming a member of Shah's Motley Productions. By 1998, he also began working extensively with Lilette Dubey's PrimeTime Theatre in productions such as On a Muggy Night in Mumbai, Sammy, August: Osage County and "Gauhar". These plays toured both India and various cities in North America, UK and Europe, South-East Asia and Australia. One of Smith's early films was Mango Soufflé (2002), which was promoted as "first gay male film from India." He then went on to play a range of characters from a Tibetan Monk in Paap (2003), a gangster against Amitabh Bachchan in Ek Ajnabee (2005), a professor in Braman Naman (2016) and Marathi film Manjha (2017), Manipuri militant in Disney's Jagga Jasoos (2017), the comedic villain in Disney's Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi (2018), detective in Badla (2019) and Dimple Kapadia's spouse in Sanjay in Christopher Nolan's Tenet (2020). More recently, Smith has returned to the small screen as the Maharaja of Kalyan in the British series Beecham House (2019).
Denzil Stuart is known for Blacks Can't Swim: The Sequel (2021).
Television audiences were introduced to Denée Benton in the role of Ruby Carter, the outspoken yet somewhat naive reality show contestant in the Emmy-nominated Lifetime series, UnREAL (2015). In just over two years since graduating from Carnegie Mellon University in 2014, Benton will be making her Broadway debut in the titular role of Natasha opposite Josh Groban in "Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812" at the Imperial Theatre in October 2016. She is reprising the role she played at Boston's American Repertory Theater the previous winter. Benton has also starred as Nabulungi in the West End production of "The Book of Mormon" as well as its U.S. national tour.
Deo Azben is an American creator, vlogger, actress, and music producer born in Central Asia. In 2008-2010, she attended the Fletcher Graduate School at Tufts University in Boston to study International Business and Communications and took acting classes for two years at Tufts Drama Department under Sheriden Thomas. While at Tufts, Deo was cast as the Speakeasy Bartender in Sleep No More, a UK immersive theater production that successfully debuted in Boston in 2009 and became a widely successful off-broadway production running for several years in New York City. In 2010, Deo played a male lead character in Budzyn, a Harvard University play directed by Guila Clara Kessous, a renowned human rights artist and director. After graduating from Tufts and moving to Washington, DC, Deo started modeling and played leading and supporting roles in local independent films.
Deo Dela Cruz is known for Kuwaresma (2019).
Deobia Oparei was born in 1971 in London, England. He is an actor, known for Dredd (2012), Doom (2005) and Dark City (1998).