2025 BET Awards: Denzel Washington wins the Best Actor award at the 2025 BET Awards

Denzel Washington picked up his fifth 'Best Actor' award at the 2025 BET Awards, held on June 9, 2025, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, California. He was nominated for his performance as Macrinus in Ridley Scott's sequel film Gladiator II. The 70-year-old actor has received 15 BET Award nominations and has previously won the award four times.

The Black Entertainment Television (BET) Awards celebrates Black excellence in the fields of film, music, entertainment, sports, and philanthropy. Comedian Kevin Hart returned to host the ceremony for the second time, having first taken on hosting duties in 2011.

Denzel Washington wins the top acting prize at the 2025 BET Awards

Denzel Washington's fellow nominees in the Best Actor category included Aaron Pierre, Will Smith, Aldis Hodge, Sterling K. Brown, Anthony Mackie, Jamie Foxx, Colman Domingo, Joey Bada$$, and Kevin Hart.

In Gladiator II, Denzel Washington portrays the main antagonist, Macrinus—an ambitious Black businessman who leads an army of gladiators and is determined to rise to the Roman throne. One of his gladiators is Lucius Verus, the exiled son of Maximus Decimus Meridius (Russell Crowe's character from Gladiator) and the illegitimate grandson of the former Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius.

Macrinus is inspired by the real historical figure Marcus Opellius Macrinus, who hailed from North Africa—present-day Algeria. He ruled as the Roman Emperor for one year, from 217 to 218. The historical drama also features Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Connie Nielsen, Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger, Derek Jacobi, and others in important roles.

Washington's villainous turn in Gladiator II was widely regarded as the highlight of the movie. His performance also earned him the Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture, though the award ultimately went to Kieran Culkin for A Real Pain.

Denzel Washington previously won the BET Award for The Equalizer 3 in 2024, American Gangster and The Great Debaters in 2008, Out of Time in 2004, and Remember the Titans in 2001.

A look at other winners at the 2025 BET Awards

Along with Denzel Washington, Cynthia Erivo took home the other top acting honor at the 2025 BET Awards. She won the Best Actress award for her performance as Elphaba in the blockbuster film Wicked.

Kendrick Lamar, who led this year's nominations, won five of the 10 awards he was up for, including Album of the Year and Video of the Year. Chris Brown was named the Best Male R&B/Pop Artist and also received the Viewer's Choice Award for his Grammy-nominated single Residuals. SZA won Best Female R&B/Pop Artist, while rapper Doechii received the Best Female Hip Hop Artist award.

The documentary Luther: Never Too Much, chronicling the life of R&B musician and record producer Luther Vandross, was named Best Movie at the ceremony.

In the sports categories, basketball player Angel Reese and football quarterback Jalen Hurts were felicitated with the Sportswoman/Sportsman of the Year awards, respectively. Nigerian singer Ayra Starr won Best International Act, while South African DJ and record production duo TxC (Tarryn Reid and Clairise Hefke) were named Best New International Act.

Beyoncé and Jay Z's 13-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, received the Young Stars Award. Lastly, pop legend Mariah Carey was honored with the Ultimate Icon Award, alongside Jamie Foxx, Snoop Dogg, and Kirk Franklin.

Stay tuned for news about other winners from the 2025 BET Awards.

About the author

Deepti is an entertainment writer at Sportskeeda. She comes with more than 6 years of experience in the creative writing field and has written extensively for the entertainment and travel domains.

She holds a degree in Chemistry, but her true interest always lay in the creative field. A passion for reading from a young age fueled her desire to make a career change later in life and take up writing as her profession.

Apart from reading, her hobbies include watching movies, listening to music, and going to the beach. In her free time, she can be found looking up reviews of new and old films to add to her watchlist. She also enjoys watching foreign language films that help expand her knowledge base regarding different cultures around the world.

Asked to describe herself, she would promptly mention that she is a die-hard Swiftie and enjoys nothing more than listening to Taylor Swift songs on loop while writing.

Know More

Edited by Shubham Soni