Intelligent, versatile and sexy Denzel Washington ranks among Hollywood's hottest actors and is best known for playing intense dramatic roles in socially conscious dramas, many of which center around racism. Born the second of three children near Harlem, New York, Washington spent the latter part of his childhood in a boarding school where he was sent while his parents unsuccessfully attempted to save their marriage. As a young man, Washington earned a BA in Journalism from Fordham University. While there, Washington appeared in a few campus theatrical productions; his rendition of Othello remains a hallmark in Fordham's theatrical history. Washington subsequently gained further training and experience at the esteemed American Conservatory Theater School in San Francisco where he had been granted a scholarship. Washington first attracted critical attention in 1982 after becoming a regular on the television medical drama St. Elsewhere before breaking into feature films later that year in Carbon Copy playing a white man's illegitimate black son. Washington next appeared in A Soldier's Story (1984) and another film after that, but he did not get his first real shot at movie stardom until he essayed real-life South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko in Richard Attenborough's Cry Freedom (1987). His powerful, realistic portrayal earned Washington an Oscar nomination for "Best Supporting Actor." Two years later, Washington received the coveted statuette for playing an embittered but brave runaway slave in Glory (1989). Since then he has steadily appeared in a wide variety of films ranging from comedies (Heart Condition [1990]) to thrillers (Ricochet [1991]), not all of which films were successful. In 1990 Washington played a talented, but self-centered jazz musician in Spike Lee's Mo' Better Blues, and worked again with the hot young director two years later playing the lead in Lee's controversial biopic, Malcolm X., once again receiving an Oscar nomination for his fine, hard work. Washington has since tried his hand at a variety of characters in genres ranging from romance to action and high drama to comedies.