Black Reel Award for Outstanding Actor

This article lists the winners and nominees for the Black Reel Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture. The award recognized an actor who delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role within the given eligible period.

Denzel Washington received the first award for The Hurricane at the 1st Annual Black Reel Award. Since its inception, the award has been given out to 17 actors. Denzel Washington holds the record for most wins and nominations in this category with 5 wins and 15 nominations, respectively. Other multiple winners include Chiwetel Ejiofor & Chadwick Boseman. Washington also became the first person to earn multiple nominations in the same year for The Book of Eli & Unstoppable at the 11th Annual Black Reel Awards. Samuel L. Jackson & Don Cheadle are tied as the most nominated actors in this category without a win.

At the 21st Annual Black Reel Awards, Chadwick Boseman became the first posthumous acting winner in Black Reel Awards History for his performance in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. At age 18, Dev Patel became the youngest actor to win this award for Slumdog Millionaire and at age 72, Morgan Freeman became the oldest winner in this category for Invictus.

The award was discontinued at the 24th Black Reel Awards and merged with Outstanding Actress in favor of a single gender-neutral award, Outstanding Lead Performance.

Winners and nominees
Winners are listed first and highlighted in bold.

Multiple wins

 * 5 Wins
 * Denzel Washington


 * 2 Wins
 * Chadwick Boseman
 * Chiwetel Ejiofor

Multiple nominations

 * 15 Nominations
 * Denzel Washington


 * 5 Nominations
 * Don Cheadle
 * Jamie Foxx
 * Samuel L. Jackson
 * Will Smith


 * 4 Nominations
 * Chadwick Boseman
 * Chiwetel Ejiofor


 * 3 Nominations
 * Derek Luke
 * Michael B. Jordan
 * Daniel Kaluuya
 * Nate Parker
 * LaKeith Stanfield


 * 2 Nominations
 * John Boyega
 * Chris Rock
 * Cuba Gooding Jr.
 * Kelvin Harrison Jr.
 * Jonathan Majors
 * Eddie Murphy
 * Forest Whitaker
 * Ice Cube
 * Idris Elba
 * Morgan Freeman