Age: 65
male
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.
Set in the scarred, brutal landscape of the ancient Mediterranean, this premium HBO series chronicles the harrowing survival of a displaced people and the blood-soaked dawn of an empire. Following the catastrophic fall of Troy, the traumatized warrior Aeneas is forced by fate to abandon the ashes of his homeland. Bearing his elderly father on his back and his young son by the hand, he must lead a desperate flotilla of refugees across a treacherous sea to found a promised new home in Italy. However, their journey is plagued by the vindictive wrath of the goddess Juno, who unleashes devastating cosmic storms and divine conspiracies to obliterate the Trojan survivors before they can ever reach their destined shores.The journey tests the limits of Aeneas’s stoic devotion to duty over personal desire. In the wealthy, rising kingdom of Carthage, a passionate, politically charged romance with the brilliant Queen Dido offers the Trojans a peaceful sanctuary—only for Aeneas to break his own heart and abandon her to fulfill his prophetic path, leaving a legacy of bitter hatred in his wake. After a haunting, reality-shattering descent into the Underworld to confront the ghosts of his past and glimpse Rome’s future glory, Aeneas finally anchors his weary fleet on the banks of Latium. Yet, peace is instantly shattered as foreign xenophobia and divine fury spark a brutal, unromantic civil war against the fierce Rutulian prince Turnus.As Italy erupts into a chaotic bloodbath, the series explores the devastating human cost of conquest and the tragic sacrifice of idealistic youth on the battlefield. Stripping away the glamorous myths of heroism, this epic narrative pits two flawed, desperate leaders against each other in a gritty clash for survival. It builds toward a hauntingly violent climax that questions whether the foundation of the world's greatest empire was worth the psychological scarring and endless cycle of vengeance left in its wake.
