Actor <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/hollywood-news/article/actor-awards-2026-michael-b-jordan-emotional-speech-for-his-mom-23619077" target="_blank" rel="none noopener">Michael B Jordan</a> has been building toward a performance like Sinners for over 20 years. Now he has the best actor Oscar as his reward.
Jordan got one trophy for playing identical twins Smoke and Stack in the blues-seeped supernatural horror film set in 1930s Mississippi that earned a record 16 Academy Award nominations.
The 98th Academy Awards were held Sunday night.
Jordan is the sixth Black man to win the best actor trophy. He joins Will Smith (King Richard, 2020), Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland, 2006), Jamie Foxx (Ray, 2004), Denzel Washington (Training Day, 2001) and Sidney Poitier (Lillies of the Field), who was the first in 1963.
The other nominees were Timothee Chalamet in Marty Supreme, Leonardo DiCaprio for One Battle After Another, Ethan Hawke of Blue Moon and Wagner Moura in <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/hollywood-news/article/the-secret-agent-movie-review-wagner-moura-anchors-tale-of-brazils-troubled-past-23618623" target="_blank" rel="none noopener">The Secret Agent</a>.
Chalamet had been the early Oscar favourite after wins at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards. But Jordan surprised himself by winning at the Actor Awards, giving him momentum in the final days of Oscar voting.
<a href="https://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/hollywood-news/article/oscars-2026-ludwig-goransson-bags-best-original-score-for-sinners-23621005" target="_blank" rel="none noopener">Sinners</a> reunited Jordan and writer-producer-director Ryan Coogler. They go back to their first collaboration in 2013.
That was Jordan's breakthrough film role in Coogler's Fruitvale Station for which he received critical praise playing a real-life man who was killed by police. It was Coogler's directorial debut, and they followed with Creed, Black Panther and now Sinners.
Jordan's initial acting success came in television. He had a small yet pivotal role in The Wire in 2002, followed by the daytime drama All My Children, in which he replaced <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/hollywood-news/article/chadwick-boseman-gets-posthumous-hollywood-walk-of-fame-star--23604236" target="_blank" rel="none noopener">Chadwick Boseman</a>, and Friday Night Lights.
He and Boseman later acted together in Black Panther and were close friends until Boseman's death from colon cancer in 2020. Jordan dedicated his acting award from this year's NAACP Image Awards to Boseman.
Jordan, a 39-year-old who also produces and directs, was born in Santa Ana, California, and grew up in Newark, New Jersey.
In a pop-culture moment, he was named People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" in 2020.
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Michael B Jordan won Best Actor for playing identical twins Smoke and Stack in the blues-seeped supernatural horror film Sinners set in 1930s Mississippi

Oscars 2026: Michael B Jordan bags Best Actor for Sinners

Oscars 2026: Jessie Buckley makes history as first Irish woman to win Best Actress

The other nominees for Best Actor were Timothee Chalamet in Marty Supreme, Leonardo DiCaprio for One Battle After Another, Ethan Hawke for Blue Moon and Wagner Moura for The Secret Agent

Oscars 2026: Michael B Jordan wins Best Actor for Sinners

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