BET Award for Best Actor

The BET Award for Best Actor is awarded to actors from both television and film. Some nominees have been nominated based on their performances in multiple bodies of work within the eligibility period. Denzel Washington and Michael B. Jordan hold the record for most wins in this category with three.

BET Awards for Best Actor
Country	United States
Presented by	BET Awards
First awarded	2001
Currently held by	Will Smith (2022)
Most awards	Denzel Washington Michael B. Jordan (3 each)
Most nominations	Denzel Washington (13)
Website	http://www.bet.com/shows/bet-awards.html

Year	Actor	Work	Ref
2001
	Denzel Washington	Remember the Titans	^{[citation needed]}
	Omar Epps	Love & Basketball
	Cuba Gooding Jr.	Men of Honor
	Samuel L. Jackson	Rules of Engagement
2002
	Will Smith	Ali	^{[citation needed]}
	Morgan Freeman	High Crimes
	Eddie Murphy	Shrek, Dr. Dolittle 2 and Showtime
	Chris Tucker	Rush Hour 2
	Denzel Washington	Training Day and John Q.
2003
	Derek Luke	Antwone Fisher	^{[citation needed]}
	Nick Cannon	Drumline
	Mos Def	Brown Sugar
	Samuel L. Jackson	XXX and Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
	Denzel Washington	Antwone Fisher
2004
	Denzel Washington	Out of Time	^{[citation needed]}
	Mos Def	The Italian Job
	Laurence Fishburne	Mystic River, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions
	Morgan Freeman	Bruce Almighty
	Samuel L. Jackson	S.W.A.T.
	Bernie Mac	Bad Santa, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle and The Bernie Mac Show
2005
	Jamie Foxx	**Ray, Collateral and Breakin' All the Rules**	^{[citation needed]}
	Don Cheadle	Ocean's Twelve, Hotel Rwanda and After the Sunset
	Morgan Freeman	Million Dollar Baby
	Samuel L. Jackson	The Incredibles and Coach Carter
	Will Smith	I, Robot, Shark Tale and Hitch
2006
	Terrence Howard	**Crash, Four Brothers, Get Rich or Die Tryin', Lackawanna Blues and Hustle & Flow**	^{[citation needed]}
	Don Cheadle	Crash
	Jamie Foxx	Stealth and Miami Vice
	Ludacris	Crash and Hustle & Flow
	Denzel Washington	Inside Man
2007
	Forest Whitaker	The Last King of Scotland	^{[citation needed]}
	Idris Elba	Daddy's Little Girls
	Jamie Foxx	Dreamgirls
	Eddie Murphy	Norbit and Dreamgirls
	Will Smith	The Pursuit of Happyness
2008
	Denzel Washington	**American Gangster and The Great Debaters**	^{[citation needed]}
	Anthony Anderson	Transformers and K-Ville
	Don Cheadle	Ocean's Thirteen and Talk to Me
	Idris Elba	American Gangster, This Christmas and 28 Weeks Later
	Terrence Howard	The Brave One and The Perfect Holiday
2009
	Will Smith	**Hancock and Seven Pounds**	^{[citation needed]}
	Common	Wanted and Street Kings
	Idris Elba	RocknRolla and The Unborn
	Samuel L. Jackson	Lakeview Terrace and Soul Men
	Jamal Woolard	Notorious

Year	Actor	Work	Ref
2010
	Idris Elba	The Losers	^{[citation needed]}
	Quinton Aaron	The Blind Side
	Don Cheadle	Brooklyn's Finest
	Jamie Foxx	Law Abiding Citizen
	Denzel Washington	The Taking of Pelham 123
2011
	Idris Elba	**Takers and Luther**	^{[citation needed]}
	Laz Alonso	Jumping the Broom
	Chris Brown	Takers
	Don Cheadle	Iron Man 2
	Jamie Foxx	Due Date
2012
	Kevin Hart	Kevin Hart: Laugh at My Pain	^{[citation needed]}
	Don Cheadle	House of Lies and The Guard
	Common	New Year's Eve and Hell on Wheels
	Idris Elba	Thor, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance and Luther
	Denzel Washington	Safe House
2013
	Jamie Foxx	Django Unchained	^[1]
	Don Cheadle	House of Lies and Flight
	Common	Hell on Wheels, LUV and The Odd Life of Timothy Green
	Samuel L. Jackson	Django Unchained and The Avengers
	Denzel Washington	Flight
2014
	Chiwetel Ejiofor	12 Years a Slave	^[2]
	Idris Elba	Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom and Thor: The Dark World
	Kevin Hart	Ride Along, Real Husbands of Hollywood and About Last Night
	Michael B. Jordan	Fruitvale Station
	Forest Whitaker	The Butler
2015
	Terrence Howard	**Empire, Lullaby, St. Vincent and Sabotage**	^[3]
	Anthony Anderson	Black-ish
	Idris Elba	Luther and No Good Deed
	Kevin Hart	The Wedding Ringer, Think Like a Man Too, Real Husbands of Hollywood and Top Five
	Jussie Smollett	Empire
2016
	Michael B. Jordan	**Fantastic Four and Creed**	^[4]
	Anthony Anderson	Black-ish
	Idris Elba	Zootopia, Beasts of No Nation and Luther
	O'Shea Jackson Jr.	Straight Outta Compton
	Courtney B. Vance	American Crime Story
2017
	Mahershala Ali	**Luke Cage, Free State of Jones, Kicks, Hidden Figures and Moonlight**	^[5]
	Donald Glover	Atlanta
	Bryshere Y. Gray	Empire and The New Edition Story
	Omari Hardwick	Power
	Denzel Washington	Fences and The Magnificent Seven
2018
	Chadwick Boseman	**Black Panther and Marshall**	^[6]
	Denzel Washington	Roman J. Israel, Esq.
	Sterling K. Brown	Marshall, This Is Us, and Black Panther
	Michael B. Jordan	Black Panther
	Daniel Kaluuya	Get Out and Black Panther
	Donald Glover	Atlanta and Spider-Man: Homecoming
2019
	Michael B. Jordan	Creed II	^[7]
	Anthony Anderson	Black-ish
	Chadwick Boseman	Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame
	Denzel Washington	The Equalizer 2
	Mahershala Ali	Green Book
	Omari Hardwick	Power

Year	Actor	Work	Ref
2020
	Michael B. Jordan	Just Mercy	^[8]
	Billy Porter	Pose
	Eddie Murphy	Dolemite Is My Name
	Forest Whitaker	Finding Steve McQueen and Godfather of Harlem
	Jamie Foxx	Just Mercy
	Omari Hardwick	Power
2021
	Chadwick Boseman (Posthumous)	Da 5 Bloods and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
	Aldis Hodge	One Night in Miami...
	Damson Idris	Snowfall
	Daniel Kaluuya	Judas and the Black Messiah
	Eddie Murphy	Coming 2 America
	LaKeith Stanfield	Judas and the Black Messiah
2022
	Will Smith	King Richard
	Adrian Holmes	Bel-Air
	Anthony Anderson	Black-ish
	Jabari Banks	Bel-Air
	Sterling K. Brown	This Is Us
	Damson Idris	Snowfall
	Denzel Washington	The Tragedy of Macbeth
	Forest Whitaker	Godfather of Harlem
2023	Amin Joseph	Snowfall
	Demetrius ‘Lil Meech’ Flenory Jr.	BMF
	Brian Tyree Henry	Atlanta, Bullet Train, Causeway
	Donald Glover	Atlanta
	Damson Idris	Snowfall
	Michael B. Jordan	Creed III
	Daniel Kaluuya	Nope

BET Award for Best Actor

Contents

Winners and nominees

2000s

2010s

2020s

Multiple wins and nominations

Wins

Nominations

See also

References

Languages