People
Forest Whitaker
Acting · follow into films and chains
Biography
Forest Steven Whitaker (born July 15, 1961) is an American actor, producer, director, and activist. He is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a British Academy Film Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. 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 blockbusters, such as Panic Room (2002), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) as Saw Gerrera, and Black Panther (2018) as Zuri. For his portrayal of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the British historical drama film The Last King of Scotland (2006), Whitaker won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Whitaker made his directorial debut with the television film Strapped (1993), and directed the films Waiting to Exhale (1995), Hope Floats (1998), and First Daughter (2004). Apart from his film career, Whitaker is also known for his humanitarian work and activism. In 2011, he was inducted as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, later receiving a promotion to Special Envoy for Peace and Reconciliation, and serves as the CEO of Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative (WPDI), a non-profit outreach program.
Notable films
Where to start
Highlights from credits and KinoChain journeys.
Arrival
Appears in a KinoChain journey
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Appears in a KinoChain journey
Where the Wild Things Are
Appears in a KinoChain journey
The Last King of Scotland
Appears in a KinoChain journey
Dope
Appears in a KinoChain journey
Black Panther
As Zuri
Taken 3
As Inspector Frank Dotzler
Platoon
As Big Harold
Chains
KinoChain journeys
Public chains that pass through their films — or name them as a bridge.
No shared language, just shared work
A chain of six films where collaboration, not language, becomes the bridge between alien intelligences. Diplomacy assumes a shared frame of reference, words, ge...
6 films
Wild Hearts: Feral Children and the Call of the Wild
From the forests of 18th-century France to the animated jungles of Mowgli, a journey through cinema's feral children and their quest for belonging.
7 films
Ghosts in the Machine
From a stuntman's final role to a star's digital encore, these eight films trace cinema's long affair with performing from beyond the grave.
8 films
The Weight of the Cape: Inheriting a Legacy You Never Asked For
Before the multiverse had a use for her, Kara Zor-El's first outing wasn't framed as destiny, it was framed as a mistake to fix. She loses the Omegahedron, the...
8 films
Grit and Grace in the City of Angels
From Boyle Heights to South Central, these eight films reveal Los Angeles as a place of struggle, resilience, and unexpected beauty.
7 films
The Weight of Command: Eight Faces of Authority
From courtroom to battlefield, from boardroom to the Oval Office, these eight performances explore the many masks of power and the human cost of wearing them.
8 films
Escapes from Broken Realities
A journey through films where children and the childlike build imaginative refuges from fractured worlds, celebrating the twentieth anniversary of Terry Gilliam...
8 films
Topics
Explore by topic
Related people
Collaborators & neighbours
Directed
Acted
City of Lies
2018 · Jack Jackson
Sorry to Bother You
2018 · First Equisapien / Demarius
Black Panther
2018 · Zuri
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
2016 · Saw Gerrera
Arrival
2016 · Colonel Weber
Roots
2016 · Fiddler
Dope
2015 · The Narrator (voice)
Taken 3
2014 · Inspector Frank Dotzler
Zulu
2013 · Ali Sokhela
The Butler
2013 · Cecil Gaines
Freelancers
2012 · Dennis Larue
Where the Wild Things Are
2009 · Ira (voice)
Powder Blue
2009 · Charlie
Street Kings
2008 · Captain Jack Wander
Vantage Point
2008 · Howard Lewis
The Great Debaters
2007 · Dr. James Farmer Sr.
The Last King of Scotland
2006 · Idi Amin
A Little Trip to Heaven
2005 · Abe Holt
Phone Booth
2003 · Captain Ramey
Panic Room
2002 · Burnham
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
1999 · Ghost Dog
Smoke
1995 · Cyrus Cole
Blown Away
1994 · Anthony Franklin
The Crying Game
1992 · Jody
Good Morning, Vietnam
1987 · Edward Garlick
Stakeout
1987 · Det. Jack Pismo
Platoon
1986 · Big Harold
The Color of Money
1986 · Amos
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
1982 · Charles Jefferson
