Forest Whitaker

Forest Steven Whitaker (born July 15, 1961) is an American actor, filmmaker, and activist. His accolades include an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor and the Honorary Palme d'Or.

After making his film debut in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Whitaker went on to earn a reputation for intensive character study work for films, such as Platoon (1986), Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Bird (1988), The Crying Game (1992), Phenomenon (1996), Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999), The Great Debaters (2007), The Butler (2013), Arrival (2016), and Respect (2021). He has also appeared in The Color of Money (1986), Panic Room (2002), Where the Wild Things Are (2009), and Black Panther (2018) as Zuri. Whitaker starred in the Star Wars franchise as Saw Gerrera, appearing in the film Rogue One (2016) and would later reprise the role in the television series Star Wars: Rebels (2017) and Andor (2022–2025), as well as the video game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (2019).