Get to know Forest Whitaker’s two brothers, Kenn and Damon Whitaker
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(999x0:1001x2):format(webp)/forest-whitaker-brothers-1-afaf9976302d46f2a721570d4b3691b1.jpg)
Forest Whitaker has two brothers: Kenn and Damon Whitaker.
While the Oscar-winning actor shares a strong resemblance to his siblings, the trio (who also have an older sister, Deborah) similarly all have careers in the entertainment industry — despite their father’s wishes.
“My father wanted me to go to West Point — that was a high calling to him — and couldn’t believe I wanted to study acting or music,” Forest told the Los Angeles Times in 2013.
Although Forest went to college on a football scholarship, an injury led him to abandon sports and pursue singing and acting. He graduated from the University of Southern California’s theater program, New York Magazine reported, and launched his acting career with 1982’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
Forest’s career has since ranged from Oscar-winning performances in 2006’s The Last King of Scotland, to franchise hits including Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Black Panther. He has also worked on television series like The Shield and Criminal Minds, and has directed films such as Waiting to Exhale.
Forest’s younger brothers, Kenn and Damon, have also experienced success in Hollywood — which Forest attributes to their “artists’ souls.”
“I was very idealistic when I was younger; I read poetry books, I didn’t care about working or making money. I would rather sleep on the couch than do something I didn’t believe in,” Whitaker told Paste magazine. “I think that it was in our blood in some way, too, because my brothers all have artists’ souls.”
Here is everything there is to know about Forest Whitaker’s two brothers, Kenn and Damon Whitaker.
Kenn Whitaker:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(999x0:1001x2):format(webp)/forest-whittaker-brothers-kenn-8fd546e9025d4ccdaa9cb2bb0904e26b.jpg)
Forest Whitaker and Kenn Whitaker attend the 2007 Vanity Fair Oscar Party.
Billy Farrell/Patrick McMullan/Getty
Though Forest and Kenn are often mistaken for twins, the brothers are actually two years apart. Kenn was 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 on June 8, 1963 — one month before big brother Forest turned 2 — in Longview, Texas. The family relocated to California when Forest and Kenn were just toddlers.
“My parents moved from Texas to South Central when I was 4, just before the 1965 Watts Riots,” Forest told The Guardian about their 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥hood. “My parents started doing better, moving upward, and we moved to this little house in Carson, on the Compton border, when I was 11. And that’s when a lot of the gang issues started up.”
Forest avoided falling into trouble with gangs by attending high school nearly an hour away, which is where he first nurtured his interest in the arts, he told The Guardian. He first studied music before falling into acting, and his brother Kenn followed a similar path.
Kenn’s big break came in 1993 when he performed the song “I Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” (which he also wrote) on the soundtrack for the HBO film Strapped, which Forest directed. He followed that up with roles in movies like Most Wanted and Bulworth, as well as appearances on the television shows such as Party of Five and Tracey Takes On…
One of Kenn’s biggest roles came in the 1999 movie Life, in which he appeared opposite Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence. He also had a part in the film The Theory of the Leisure Class, but appears to not have worked since the early 2000s.
Damon Whitaker:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(999x0:1001x2):format(webp)/forest-whitaker-brother-damon-d6e0a49889ca4bb2992d46f011dd41bd.jpg)
Forest Whitaker and Damon Whitaker during HBO’s screening of ‘Strapped’.
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
The youngest Whitaker brother is Damon, who was 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 on Oct. 21, 1970, in Los Angeles. Damon was just 12 when Forest landed his first major film role in Fast Times at Ridgemont High — but he had already been bitten by the acting bug himself by then.
“I was raised in the arts, so my family has always been writing and painting and acting and singing,” Damon said at the premiere of One Warm Night. “It’s just natural for us. I’ve been acting since I was in kindergarten.”
Though Damon says his first on-screen role came when he appeared in a school safety film in elementary school, his big break came in 1988 when he worked alongside Forest in the biopic Bird, which told the life story of jazz musician Charlie “Bird” Parker.
Forest appeared in the lead role as Parker, while Damon (who was in high school at the time) played a younger version of the same character. The critically-acclaimed film, which was directed by Clint Eastwood, earned Forest his first Golden Globe nomination.
That wasn’t the only time Damon and Forest worked together; they both appeared in Mr. Holland’s Opus and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai as the younger and older versions of the same character. Forest also directed Damon in 2004’s First Daughter.
Damon continued acting over the years, but also segued into producing and writing.
“I do develop and produce; I’ve been doing it for a while,” he said at the premiere of One Warm Night. “I am a writer as well, so I’ve been doing a lot of writing.”
His most recent project is the 2022 television series Strangely Tranquil, in which he writes and acts.
