Laurence Fishburne To Receive Inaugural James Earl Jones Prize at the 2026 Voice Arts Awards

Laurence Fishburne will receive the inaugural James Earl Jones Prize at The Society of Voice Arts and Sciences' 2026 Voice Arts Awards, taking place on January 18 at the Beverly Hilton. This new prize was created in honor of one of the world’s most influential artists, not just in the voice acting community, but in the entertainment industry at large, and will celebrate other performers who embody his artistic excellence, integrity, and cultural impact.

Laurence J. Fishburne III has achieved an impressive body of work as an actor, producer and director. His versatile acting has won him awards in theatre, film and television. In 1992, Fishburne won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Sterling Johnson in August Wilson’s Two Trains Running. He won his first Emmy Award in 1993 for “The Box” episode of Tribeca, and his second for his one-man show, Thurgood, in 1997. In 1993, Laurence also received a Best Actor Oscar nomination for the Tina Turner biopic, What’s Love Got to Do with It. He was an Emmy Award nominee and an NAACP Image Award winner for his starring role in the 1997 telefilm Miss Evers’ Boys, which he also executive-produced. Laurence has been nominated 25 times for NAACP Image awards, with seven wins - most recently in 2021 for “Outstanding Performance in a Short Form Series” for #FreeRayshawn. His most recent Emmy win was also for his role in Quibi’s #FreeRayshawn.

Laurence may be best known for his role as Morpheus in the Wachowksi siblings’ blockbuster The Matrix trilogy, but his many film credits include: Academy Award nominee John Singleton’s Boyz ‘n the Hood, Richard T. Heffron’s telefilm A Rumor of War, Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple, Steven Zaillian’s Searching for Bobby Fischer, Mr. Singleton’s Higher Learning, Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River and cult classics, Deep Cover and King of New York.

Fishburne has served as an Ambassador for UNICEF since 1996. In 2007, he was honored by Harvard University as Artist of the Year for his Outstanding Contributions to American and International Performing Arts as well as his humanitarian contributions.

More recently, in 2023, he starred in Netflix’s The School for Good & Evil alongside Charlize Theron and Kerry Washington. Laurence then resumed his role in John Wick: Chapter 4 and took the lead as Doc Rivers in FX’s limited series, Clipped. In 2024, Fishburne paired up with Casey Affleck in a new sci-fi thriller, Slingshot, and starred in Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis as well as Transformers One, voicing Alpha Trion. Fishburne recently starred alongside Kate Mara in The Astronaut and Rami Malik in The Amateur. He made his first appearance in season 4 of the Netflix hit series “The Witcher,” which released Oct 2025, with season 5 to follow, likely being released next year.

Now entering its twelfth year, the Voice Arts Awards celebrate creative excellence across more than 150 categories, recognizing achievements in animation, film, TV narration, audiobooks, audio description, video games, political advertising, podcasts, and spoken word. The Voice Arts Awards are presented by Audible, with additional support from United Airlines, Comcast NBCUniversal, SiriusXM, and Telemundo. 

As previously announced, Debbe Hirata will receive the Legacy Award and Fabián Toro will receive the Apex Award at this year’s ceremony.

2026 Theater Fans' Choice Awards - Live Stats

Best Orchestrations - Top 3

1. Ethan Popp, The Rescues - The Lost Boys

30.7% of votes

2. Lux Pyramid - Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)

14.7% of votes

3. Anders Eljas, Brian Usifer - Chess

12.3% of votes

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