Forest Steven Whitaker III (born July 15, 1961) is an American actor, director, and producer.
He has earned a reputation for intensive character study work for films such as Bird, Platoon, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai and Lee Daniels’ The Butler, for his work in independent films and for his recurring role as LAPD Internal Affairs Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh on the Emmy Award-winning television series The Shield. He is set to portray Saw Gerrera in the Star Wars spin-off film, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Whitaker won the Academy Award, British Academy Film Award, Golden Globe Award, National Board of Review Award,Screen Actors Guild Award, and various critics groups awards for his performance as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the 2006 film The Last King of Scotland.