| Black Reel Award for Outstanding Breakthrough Performance, Male | |
| Image Upright: | 0.7 |
| Awarded For: | Outstanding Breakthrough Performance, Male |
| Presenter: | Black Reel Awards (BRAs) |
| Country: | United States |
| Holder Label: | Most recent winner |
| Holder: | Jeremy Pope The Inspection (Black Reel Awards of 2023) |
This article lists the winners and nominees for the Black Reel Award for Outstanding Breakthrough Performance, Male. Prior to 2014 the category was not gender specific, and was just called Outstanding Breakthrough Performance. Derek Luke was the first recipient (male or female) to win the Outstanding Breakthrough Performance category. Luke was also the first performer to win a Black Reel Awards in a Lead or Supporting performance and the Breakthrough performance in the same year.
Currently, Daniel Kaluuya is the only male actor to win the BRA "Triple Crown" acting award with wins in the Lead, Supporting and Breakthrough categories. Kaluuya took home the award for Outstanding Actor & Outstanding Breakthrough Performance, Male for Get Out and won the award for Outstanding Supporting Actor for Judas and the Black Messiah.
At age 14, Abraham Attah became the youngest actor to win this award for Beasts of No Nation and at age 34, Kingsley Ben-Adir became the oldest winner in this category for One Night in Miami....
Winners are listed first and highlighted in bold.
| Year | Actor | Film | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | |||
| Kelvin Harrison Jr. | Waves (Outstanding Actor Nominee) | [7] | |
| Tituss Burgess | Dolemite Is My Name | ||
| Jonathan Majors | The Last Black Man in San Francisco (Outstanding Supporting Actor Nominee) | ||
| Aldis Hodge | Clemency (Outstanding Supporting Actor Nominee) | ||
| Jimmie Fails | The Last Black Man in San Francisco (Outstanding Actor Nominee) | ||
| 2021 | |||
| Kingsley Ben-Adir | One Night in Miami... (Outstanding Actor Nominee) | [8] | |
| The Trial of the Chicago 7 | |||
| Dusan Brown | Ma Rainey's Black Bottom | ||
| Eli Goree | One Night in Miami... | ||
| Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine | Farewell Amor | ||
| 2022 | |||
| Anthony Ramos | In the Heights | [9] | |
| The Harder They Fall | |||
| Edi Gathegi | The Harder They Fall | ||
| Joshua Henry | Tick, Tick...Boom! | ||
| Caleb McLaughlin | Concrete Cowboy | ||
| 2023 | |||
| Jeremy Pope | The Inspection (Outstanding Actor Winner) | ||
| Till | |||
| Good Luck to You, Leo Grande | |||
| Black Adam | |||
| Empire of Light (Outstanding Supporting Actor Nominee) |
| Record | Actor | Film | Age (in years) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oldest winner | Kingsley Ben-Adir | One Night in Miami... | 34 | |
| Oldest nominee | Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine | Farewell Amor | 53 | |
| Youngest winner | Abraham Attah | Beasts of No Nation | 14 | |
| Youngest nominee | C.J. Sanders | Ray | 8 |