What is the net worth and salary of John David Washington?
John David Washington is an American actor and former professional football player who has a net worth of $8 million. John David Washington had his breakthrough role as undercover detective Ron Stallworth in Spike Lee’s 2018 film BlacKkKlansman. He was also part of the main cast of the HBO series “Ballers” and starred in films such as “Tenet”, “Malcolm & Marie”, “Beckett” and “Canterbury Glass”. Before joining the show, Washington played four years of football with the UFL’s Sacramento Mountain Lions.
Youth
John David Washington was born on July 28, 1984 in Los Angeles, California, the eldest of four children of actor Denzel Washington and actress and singer Pauletta Washington.
Thanks to his father’s fame, he appeared early in films, his first appearance as a seven-year-old student in Spike Lee’s 1992 film Malcolm X, starring Denzel. As a teenager, Washington attended Campbell High School, where he lettered in basketball, football and track. After graduating in 2002, he attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.
The beginning of the football career
Washington began his career as a football player at Morehouse College. There, he led the conference in rushing with a school-record 1,198 yards. Additionally, he set school records for both single-game and career hitting streaks with 242 and 3,699, respectively.
In the 2006 NFL Draft, Washington went undrafted. Later, he signed with St. Louis Rams as a free agent. After the team released him a few months later, he re-signed him to its practice squad. During the 2007 offseason, Washington played for the Rhein Fire in NFL Europe. He was eventually drafted by the California Redwoods of the UFL, which later became the Sacramento Mountain Lions after moving to Sacramento. Washington played with the team for four years until 2012, when the league abruptly folded.
“ballerinas”
Washington had his first significant acting role in 2015 when he was cast in the HBO sports drama series Ballers. He played the lead role of Ricky Jerret, a deeply competitive NFL player who also has a prominent spiritual side. Other cast members included Dwayne Johnson, Rob Corddry, Omar Miller, London Brown and Jazmyn Simon. Washington remained on the Ballers for all five seasons until 2019.
Film career
As an adult, Washington gave his first film performance in the 2017 musical drama Love Beats Rhymes, directed by rapper RZA. The film stars Azealia Banks, Common, Lucien Laviscount, Jill Scott and Lorraine Toussaint, among others. Still, Washington had a breakout year on the big screen in 2018, appearing in four films in total. The first two, “Monsters and Men” and “Monster,” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January. In the former, Washington played the role of police officer Dennis Williams, while in the latter, he played the supporting role of Richard “Bobo” Evans. Washington gained his biggest recognition later in the year for his performance in Spike Lee’s biographical drama BlacKkKlansman. He played real-life African-American detective Ron Stallworth, who went undercover in the early 1970s to infiltrate a local Ku Klux Klan chapter in Colorado Springs. “BlackKkKlansman” was critically acclaimed; for his performance, Washington earned SAG and Golden Globe nominations. His last film of 2018 was another crime biopic, The Old Man & the Gun, starring Robert Redford as real-life career killer Forrest Tucker.
After seeing Washington’s performance in “BlacKkKlansman,” director Christopher Nola was so impressed that he cast the actor in his next project, the 2020 sci-fi spy film “Tenet.” Washington was joined in the cast by Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Michael Caine and Kenneth Branagh, among others. Following this, Washington starred alongside Zendaya in the 2021 romantic drama Malcolm & Marie, the first Hollywood feature film to be made entirely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Also in 2021, Washington played an American tourist hunted in Greece in the action thriller ‘Beckett’. His other credits included David O. Russell’s ensemble comedy Canterbury Glass, starring Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, Robert De Niro and Rami Malek;
Stage career
In 2022, he announced that Washington would play Boy Willie in a Broadway revival of August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson.” Other cast members include Samuel L. Jackson and Danielle Brooks; directed by LaTanya Richardson Jackson. The same cast also announced their intention to star in a film adaptation of the play.
Personal career
Washington is very guarded about his personal life and has spoken only vaguely about past romantic relationships. He revealed, however, that he struggled to find girlfriends and maintain partnerships over time.
