About Young Washington
Synopsis:
Film to begin production later this summer, theatrical release is slated for July 4th weekend, 2026. In an industry first, tickets went on sale a year in advance via the Angel Studios ticketing platform.
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About the Cast and Filmmakers
William Franklyn-Miller is currently filming a recurring role in the Apple TV/Skydance series NEUROMANCER alongside Callum Turner and Mark Strong. He will next be seen starring in the big-budget Chinese production DONGJI RESCUE. Previous credits include the Netflix series MEDICI. He is represented by United Agents, Entertainment 360, and Goodman, Genow.
Sir Ben Kingsley was born Krishna Bhanji on December 31, 1943 in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England. His father, Rahimtulla Harji Bhanji, was a Kenyan-born medical doctor, of Gujarati Indian descent, and his mother, Anna Lyna Mary (Goodman), was an English actress. Ben began to act in stage plays during the 1960s. He soon became a successful stage actor, and also began to have roles in films and television. His birth name was Krishna Bhanji, but he changed his name to "Ben Kingsley" soon after gaining fame as a stage actor, fearing that a foreign name could hamper his acting career.
Kingsley first earned international fame for his performance in the drama movie Gandhi. His performance as Mohandas K. Gandhi earned him international fame. He won many awards - including an Academy Award for Best Actor. He also won Golden Globe, BAFTA and London Film Critics' Circle Awards. After acting in Gandhi, Ben was recognized as one of the finest British actors.
After his international fame for appearing in Gandhi, Kingsley appeared in many other famous movies. His success as an actor continued. His performance as Itzhak Stern in the drama movie Schindler's List earned him a BAFTA nomination for best supporting actor. Schindler's List won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. During the late 1990s, Kingsley acted in many successful movies. He played Sweeney Todd in the television movie The Tale of Sweeney Todd, for which he was nominated for the Screen Actors' Guild Award. His other notable role was as Otto Frank in the television movie Anne Frank: The Whole Story, for which he won the Screen Actors' Guild Award.
In 2002, Kingsley was appointed Knight Bachelor of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen's New Years Honours for his services to drama. In 2013, he received the BAFTA Los Angeles Britannia Award for Worldwide Contribution to Filmed Entertainment. That same year, he also received the Fellowship Award at the Asian Awards in London, England.
Southern-bred Mary-Louise Parker was born on August 2, 1964 in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, the youngest of four children of Judge John Morgan Parker, and the former Caroline Louise Morell. She is of mostly Swedish, English, and Scottish descent. Her father's occupation took the family both around the country and abroad while growing up.
Parker showed potential in her teens and majored in acting in her college years, graduating from the North Carolina School of the Arts. Beginning her acting career with a part on the daytime soap Ryan's Hope, Mary decided to test the waters in New York, and after work on the off-Broadway stage in the late 1980s, made her Broadway debut with "Prelude to a Kiss" in 1990, where she won the Theatre World Award, the Clarence Derwent Award and a Tony nomination.
Films and TV quickly followed and she quickly gained attention. She provided both poignant and amusing as the token femme friend to a group of gay men in the AIDS drama Longtime Companion, but really caught fire with her feisty, standout performance in Fried Green Tomatoes, holding her own against such female powerhouses as Jessica Tandy, Kathy Bates and Mary Stuart Masterson. Dubbed by some as the "long-suffering girl next door," she played such noble offbeat miserables and cast-asides in Grand Canyon, Naked in New York, Bullets Over Broadway, The Client Boys on the Side, in which she was the AIDS victim this time, The Portrait of a Lady, The Maker, Let the Devil Wear Black, Red Dragon and Pipe Dream.
Preferring quality over quantity, she perfected her craft with offbeat roles in independent features and did not abandon her theater roots. She copped a slew of acting prizes for her stage work in "How I Learned to Drive" (1996) and, most notably, "Proof" in 2000, wherein she won nearly every award there is to attain, including the prestigious Tony. Her marquee name still does not command what it should, but a picture or production with Mary-Louise Parker in it usually guarantees a strong critical reception. Unmarried, she did enter into a longtime companionship with actor Billy Crudup after the twosome appeared opposite each other in the 1996 play, "Bus Stop". They went their separate ways in 2003, amid major controversy (she was pregnant at the time).
Mary Louise continues to divide her time equally and skillfully on TV, film and the stage. The powerful TV miniseries adaptation of Tony Kushner heralded award-winning Broadway play Angels in America, directed by Mike Nichols, earned the actress supporting performance Golden Globe and Emmy awards. She also earned a Tony nomination for the Broadway show, "Reckless", a year later but truly turned heads and wowed audiences the year after that in the highly acclaimed 7-season Showtime series Weeds, earning another Golden Globe and several Emmy nominations for her amazing performance as Nancy Botwin, a relatively naïve suburban housewife and mother who courts serious trouble with the law and drug cartels when she turns into a neighborhood drug dealer for sustenance after her husband dies suddenly.
Into the millennium, Mary has continued with compelling work in such films as RED 2, R.I.P.D., Jamesy Boy, Behaving Badly, Chronically Metropolitan, Golden Exits and Red Sparrow. TV roles have included recurring roles on The Blacklist and the sci-fi thriller Mr. Mercedes.
Her first child is eighteen-year-old William Atticus Parker -- a director, writer and actor. Adopting a second child from Ethiopia, Mary Louise was acknowledged in 2013 for her significant contributions to Hope North, an organization that works in the educating and healing of young victims caught in Uganda's civil war. Her memoir-in-letters, Dear Mr. You, came out in 2015.
A six-time Emmy Award winner, Kelsey Grammer was born in Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, to Sally (Cranmer), a singer, and Frank Allen Grammer, Jr., a musician and restaurateur, who were from the mainland. He was raised in New Jersey and Florida. Grammer was drawn to the works of William Shakespeare and spent two years at the prestigious Juilliard School. He then dove into the world of regional theater, eventually making the leap to Broadway with roles in "Macbeth" and "Othello." He joined the cast of the situation comedy Cheers in 1984.
Grammer is the first actor in television history to receive multiple Emmy nominations for performing the same role on three series. He received two nominations for his original portrayal of Dr. Frasier Crane on Cheers, another for his guest appearance in that role on Wings, and nine nominations (earning four awards) as Outstanding Actor for his work on Frasier. Over the years, Dr. Frasier Crane has become one of television's most endearing and enduring characters. In addition to his Emmy Awards, Grammer has won two Golden Globe Awards, two American Comedy Awards and a People's Choice Award for his portrait. Grammer's distinctive voice has been heard in several hit animated features, including the voice of Stinky Pete in Disney's hit Toy Story 2 and a role in Anastasia. On television, he has also been seen in several mini-series and movies. In 1996, he hosted an hour-long salute to Jack Benny for which he served as executive producer. He also starred in HBO's award-winning comedy The Pentagon Wars. Grammer's autobiography, "So Far," was published in fall 1995.
ANDY SERKIS is an award-winning actor who has earned acclaim from both critics and audiences for his work in a range of memorable roles. He gained legions of fans around the globe for his performance as “Gollum” in the Academy Award® -winning The Lord of the Rings trilogy, directed by Peter Jackson. Serkis won an Empire Award for his role, in addition to sharing in several Outstanding Ensemble Cast Awards, including a Screen Actors Guild Award®. He reunited with Jackson in the director’s epic retelling of King Kong, taking performance capture to another level as the titular character, and between 2011-2017 he took performance capture to new heights with his heartbreaking and critically acclaimed portrayal of “Caesar” in the Planet of the Apes trilogy.
Serkis recently wrapped production as director/producer of an animated adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. He is currently preparing to direct as well as reprise his role as the titular character in The Lord of The Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, (working title) with Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson, and Fran Walsh producing. The film is scheduled for release in December 2027.
In February of 2020, he was honored by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) at the 73rd EE British Academy Film Awards with one the organization’s highest honor, the Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award.
Photo credit:The Imaginarium
Joel David Smallbone is an Australian actor, filmmaker, and one half of the 4-time GRAMMY® Award-winning pop duo for KING + COUNTRY, alongside his brother Luke. Known for their cinematic sound and dynamic live shows, the Platinum-selling duo has amassed more than 3 billion streams, 13 No. 1 radio hits, and major accolades including 14 GMA Dove Awards, a Billboard Music Award, and an American Music Award. They've performed on Good Morning America, The View, The Today Show, The Tonight Show, and CMT Crossroads.
In addition to his music career, Joel has built an impressive body of work in film. He made his acting debut alongside Billy Ray Cyrus in Like a Country Song (2014), co-wrote and starred in the 2016 drama Priceless and portrayed a lead role in the live-action musical Journey to Bethlehem (2023) opposite Antonio Banderas. Most recently he co-wrote, co-directed, and starred in the 2024 feature film Unsung Hero from Lionsgate, the true story of his family's journey of faith, resilience, and immigration to America.
With a passion for telling redemptive, purpose-driven stories both on stage and on screen, Joel continues to make an impact in the worlds of music, film, and beyond.
Photo Credit: John Nacion/Variety via Getty Images
Jonno Davies is an actor, known for Spotless, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Hollyoaks, Casualty, In the Name of Ben Hur, Silent Witness, The Killing of Ada May and Doctors.
He plays Andrew King in British cyber-crime thriller King of Crime, alongside Mark Wingett, Claire King, Rachel Bright, Vas Blackwood and Nicholas Brendon.
In June 2019, it was announced that Jonno was joining the cast of the Amazon Prime original series Hunters, starring Al Pacino, due for release in early 2020.
In addition to his TV and film appearances, Jonno played the title role in Dracula at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2014, toured Norway and Singapore in a production of A Clockwork Orange as lead character Alex DeLarge, and was also a cast member of the Olivier Award nominated production of Shakespeare In Love at the Noel Coward Theatre in London's West End in 2015.
He reprised the role of Alex DeLarge to rave reviews in Action To The Word's production of A Clockwork Orange at London's The Park Theatre during February and March 2017. Broadway World described his portrayal as "without doubt this is one of the standout lead performances of the year so far."
In the summer of 2017 Jonno played Alex DeLarge once again, with the success of A Clockwork Orange's London run seeing the show transfer to New York. He made his New York stage debut on 2 September 2017 with the show running to the end of the year. In the edition dated 10 September 2017, The New York Times named Jonno as the only male actor in their list of "Tomorrow's Marquee Names".
Jonno trained at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, graduating in 2013. He was Italia Conti's nominee at the prestigious Spotlight Prize in his final year..