Chiwetel Ejiofor

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Chiwetel Ejiofor

CBE
Ejiofor at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con
Born
Chiwetel Umeadi Ejiofor[1]

(1977-07-10) 10 July 1977 (age 46)
EducationLondon Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
OccupationActor
Years active1995–present
RelativesZain Asher (sister)
AwardsFull list

Chiwetel Umeadi Ejiofor

Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards
.

After enrolling at the National Youth Theatre in 1995 and attending the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, at age 19 and three months into his course, Ejiofor was cast by Steven Spielberg to play a supporting role in the film Amistad (1997) as James Covey.[5]

Ejiofor portrayed the characters Okwe in

Karl Mordo in Doctor Strange (2016) and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), and Trywell Kamkwamba in The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (2019). He voiced Dr. Watson in Sherlock Gnomes (2018), Scar in The Lion King (2019), and featured in the fantasy film Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019).[6]

For 12 Years a Slave, Ejiofor received

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his performance on Dancing on the Edge.[7] In 2022, he played the lead role in the Showtime science fiction television series The Man Who Fell to Earth
.

In 2008, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the arts.[8] He was elevated to Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2015 Birthday Honours.[9]

Early life

Ejiofor was born on 10 July 1977 in

middle-class Nigerian parents of Igbo descent.[10][11][12] His father, Arinze, was a doctor, and his mother, Obiajulu, was a pharmacist. His younger sister, Zain, is a CNN correspondent.[13]
His other sister Kandi is a GP doctor.

In 1988, when Ejiofor was 11, during a family trip to Nigeria for a wedding, he and his father were driving to

lorry. His father was killed, and Ejiofor was badly injured, receiving scars that are still visible on his forehead.[14][15]

He began acting in school plays at his junior school, Dulwich Prep London (known at the time as "Dulwich College Preparatory School"), where he played the gravedigger in William Shakespeare's Hamlet. Ejiofor continued acting at his senior school, Dulwich College, and joined the National Youth Theatre. He got into the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art but left after his first year, after being cast in Steven Spielberg's film Amistad. He played the title role in Othello at the Bloomsbury Theatre in September 1995, and again at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow, in 1996, when he starred opposite Rachael Stirling as Desdemona.

Career

1996–2007: Career beginnings and early recognition

Ejiofor made his film debut in the television film

Laurence Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2001.[17]

Ejiofor had his first leading film role playing Nicky Burkett in Jeremy Cameron's It Was an Accident (2000). In 2002, he starred in Dirty Pretty Things,[16] for which he won a British Independent Film Award for best actor. In the following year, he was part of the ensemble cast of Love Actually,[16] starred in a BBC adaptation of Chaucer's The Knight's Tale and also starred on the BBC series Trust. Also in 2003, he starred in the lead role of Augustus in the radio production of Rita Dove's poetic drama "The Darker Face of the Earth", which premiered on the BBC World Service on 23 August of that year, marking the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. He starred alongside Hilary Swank in Red Dust (2004), portraying the fictional politician Alex Mpondo of post-apartheid South Africa.

He played the central role of

Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film in 2007.[16]

In 2007, Ejiofor starred opposite

Desdemona and Ewan McGregor as Iago. The production received favourable reviews, with particularly strong praise for Ejiofor. "Chiwetel Ejiofor produces one of the most memorable performances of Othello in recent years."[19] He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance.[16] He also narrated the BBC television film Partition: The Day India Burned (2007), which was based on the Partition of India. He starred as Mike Terry in the 2008 cult film Redbelt
that received favourable reviews.

2008–2018: International recognition and critical acclaim

Ejiofor was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours.[20] In the same year, he made his directorial debut in the short film Slapper, which he also wrote, based on an idea by editor/director Yusuf Pirhasan.[21] Ejiofor appeared alongside John Cusack in the film 2012 (2009). The film went on to gross over $700 million, and is among the list of highest-grossing films of all time and placing 5th of top films of 2009. He played CIA officer Darryl Peabody in Salt (2010), and the Golden Globe Award-nominated leading role of band creator Louis Lester on the BBC Two drama series Dancing on the Edge (2013), which played on Starz in the United States.[16]

In 2013, Ejiofor took on the role of Solomon Northup in 12 Years a Slave. The film was based on Northup's memoir, edited in 1968 by historians Sue Eakin and Joseph Logsdon, of Northup's experience as a free black man in New York, who was kidnapped in 1841 and sold into slavery in Louisiana. On casting, director Steve McQueen said:

Chiwetel Ejiofor was always going to be Solomon Northup for me. I was looking for someone that had that genteelness, that kind of humanity. Knowing that humanity was going to be tested under certain duress and circumstances, I needed a person who could actually keep hold of that, even through periods of extraordinary trying and extraordinary situations where it would be tested to its absolute limit. He was the only person.[22]

At the Toronto International Film Festival, Ejiofor said he briefly hesitated about playing Northup. "You wait all your life for a great script to come through the door. You're hassling your agent and all that, and then it comes and you read it and your first reaction surprises you. Your first reaction being, 'Can I do this?'"[23] He accepted the role about 24 hours later.[24] As part of his preparation for the role, Ejiofor learned to play the violin, collected slave stories, maintained a slave's edge up hairstyle, and engaged in some of the physical labour that Northup was subject to, including cotton picking.[25] Since he had not worked with McQueen before, Ejiofor also observed the working dynamic between the director and co-star Michael Fassbender, who worked with McQueen on Hunger (2008) and Shame (2011).[26] On playing Northup, Ejiofor did feel a responsibility, not being American, to get the story of Solomon Northup as current he could, adding "I've been very grateful to show the film to his descendants and see them be so proud of it."[27]

Ejiofor in 2015

12 Years a Slave opened to wide acclaim, with many critics citing Ejiofor's performance and declaring him an almost-certain Academy Award nominee for Best Actor.[23][25][27][28] From Owen Gleiberman at Entertainment Weekly: "It is Chiwetel Ejiofor's extraordinary performance that holds the movie together, and that allows us to watch it without blinking. He plays Solomon with a powerful inner strength, yet he never soft-pedals the silent nightmare that is Solomon's daily existence."[29] From Christopher Orr at The Atlantic: "Ejiofor has given notable performances in the past (Dirty Pretty Things, Serenity, Talk to Me), but this is by far his most essential role to date. Stoic, watchful, compromising himself just enough to stay alive, he is the point of stillness and decency around which spin the madnesses of the film."[30] In his The Hollywood Reporter review, Todd McCarthy wrote, "Ejiofor is terrific in a demanding character who's put through the wringer physically, mentally and emotionally."[31] On 16 January 2014, Ejiofor was officially nominated for Best Actor for the 86th Academy Awards on 2 March.

As of September 2013, Ejiofor was slated to portray Patrice Lumumba in a film adaptation of Aimé Césaire's A Season in the Congo, a role in which he had performed on stage at the Young Vic. Joe Wright, who directed the play, was to also direct the film.[32][33]

In 2014, Ejiofor starred in the Nigerian film Half of a Yellow Sun alongside Thandiwe Newton.[34]

It was announced in June 2014 that Ejiofor would play real-life drug dealer Thomas McFadden in film based on the book Marching Powder: A True Story of Friendship, Cocaine, and South America's Strangest Jail, written by McFadden and Australian journalist

Mary Magdalene, written by Helen Edmundson and directed by Garth Davis.[37]
On 1 November 2017, he was officially chosen for the role of Scar for the computer-animated remake, The Lion King (2019) directed by Jon Favreau.[38] Played by Jeremy Irons in the 1994 animated film, Ejiofor described Scar as more "psychologically possessed" and "brutalized" than in the original.[39] Ejiofor stated, "especially with Scar, whether it's a vocal quality that allows for a certain confidence or a certain aggression, to always know that at the end of it you're playing somebody who has the capacity to turn everything on its head in a split second with outrageous acts of violence – that can completely change the temperature of a scene."[39] He also said that "[Scar and Mufasa's] relationship is completely destroyed and brutalized by Scar's way of thinking. He's possessed with this disease of his own ego and his own want."[39][40] Favreau said of casting Ejiofor, "[He] is just a fantastic actor, who brings us a bit of the mid-Atlantic cadence and a new take on the character. He brings that feeling of a Shakespearean villain to bear because of his background as an actor. It's wonderful when you have somebody as experienced and seasoned as Chiwetel; he just breathes such wonderful life into this character."[41] Ejiofor narrated the 2019 documentary film The Elephant Queen.[42]

2019–present: Directorial debut with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

In 2019, Ejiofor made his feature directorial debut with

.

Personal life and legacy

As of 2013, Ejiofor split his time between Clerkenwell, London and Los Angeles.[44][45]

In 2015, Ejiofor was honoured with a Global Promise Award by The GEANCO Foundation, a non-profit welfare organisation in West Africa, for his charity work in Nigeria.[46]

On 12 September 2016, Ejiofor, as well as Cate Blanchett, Jesse Eisenberg, Peter Capaldi, Douglas Booth, Neil Gaiman, Keira Knightley, Juliet Stevenson, Kit Harington and Stanley Tucci, featured in a video from the United Nations' refugee agency UNHCR to help raise awareness of the global refugee crisis. The video, titled "What They Took With Them", has the actors reading a poem, written by Jenifer Toksvig and inspired by primary accounts of real refugees, and is part of UNHCR's #WithRefugees campaign, which also includes a petition to governments to expand asylum to provide further shelter, integrating job opportunities, and education.[47][48] Ejiofor is a supporter of Crystal Palace F.C.[49]

Filmography

Key
Denotes works that have not yet been released

Film

Year Title Role Director Notes
1997 Amistad Ensign James Covey Steven Spielberg
1999 G:MT – Greenwich Mean Time Rix John Strickland
2000 It Was an Accident Nicky Burkett Metin Hüseyin
2002 Dirty Pretty Things Okwe lander Stephen Frears
2003 Love Actually Peter Richard Curtis
Three Blind Mice Mark Hayward Mathias Ledoux
2004 She Hate Me Frank Wills Spike Lee
Red Dust Alex Mpondo Tom Hooper
Melinda and Melinda Ellis Moonsong Woody Allen
2005 Four Brothers Victor Sweet John Singleton
Serenity The Operative Joss Whedon
Slow Burn Ty Trippin Wayne Beach
Kinky Boots Simon / Lola Julian Jarrold
2006 Inside Man Detective Bill Mitchell Spike Lee
Children of Men Luke Alfonso Cuarón
2007 Talk to Me Dewey Hughes Kasi Lemmons
American Gangster Huey Lucas Ridley Scott
2008 Redbelt Mike Terry David Mamet
Slapper Himself Short film; writer, director
2009 Endgame Thabo Mbeki Pete Travis
2012 Adrian Helmsley Roland Emmerich
2010 Salt Darryl Peabody Phillip Noyce
2013 Savannah Christmas Moultrie Annette Haywood-Carter
12 Years a Slave Solomon Northup Steve McQueen
Half of a Yellow Sun Odenigbo Biyi Bandele
2015 Z for Zachariah John Loomis Craig Zobel
The Martian Vincent Kapoor Ridley Scott
Secret in Their Eyes Ray Kasten Billy Ray
2016 Triple 9 Michael Atwood John Hillcoat
Doctor Strange
Karl Mordo
Scott Derrickson
2018 Come Sunday Carlton Pearson Joshua Marston
Mary Magdalene Peter Garth Davis
Sherlock Gnomes Gnome Watson (voice) John Stevenson
2019 The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind Trywell Kamkwamba Himself Also writer and director
The Lion King Scar (voice) Jon Favreau
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil Conall Joachim Rønning
The Elephant Queen Narrator Victoria Stone/Mark Deeble
2020 The Old Guard Copley Gina Prince-Bythewood
2021 Locked Down Paxton Doug Liman
Infinite Bathurst 2020 Antoine Fuqua
2022 Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Earth-838 Karl Mordo Sam Raimi
2023 The Pod Generation Alvy Sophie Barthes
2024 Rob Peace Rob Peace's father Himself Post-production, also writer and director
Venom: The Last Dance TBA Kelly Marcel Filming
TBA The Old Guard 2 Copley Victoria Mahoney Post-production
The Life of Chuck Mike Flanagan Post-production

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1996 Deadly Voyage Ebow Television film
2001 Murder in Mind DS McCorkindale Episode: "Teacher"
2003 Twelfth Night Orsino Television film
Trust Ashley Carter 6 episodes
The Canterbury Tales Paul Segment: The Knight's Tale
2006 Tsunami: The Aftermath Ian Carter Television film
2007 Partition: The Day India Burned Narrator
2011 The Shadow Line Jonah Gabriel 7 episodes
2013 Dancing on the Edge Louis Lester 6 episodes
Phil Spector Mock Prosecutor Television film
2017 Red Nose Day Actually Peter Television short film
2022 The Man Who Fell to Earth Faraday Main role

Theatre

Year Title Role Notes
1995 Othello Othello Bloomsbury Theatre
1996 Theatre Royal, Glasgow
1997 Macbeth Malcolm Bristol Old Vic
1999 Sparkleshark Russell Royal National Theatre
2000 Blue/Orange Chris Royal National Theatre
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo
Royal National Theatre
Peer Gynt Young Peer Royal National Theatre
2002 The Vortex Nicky Lancaster Donmar Warehouse
2007 The Seagull Boris Alexeyevich Trigorin Royal Court Theatre
Othello Othello Donmar Warehouse
2013 A Season in the Congo Patrice Lumumba Young Vic
2015 Everyman Everyman Royal National Theatre

Awards and nominations

Ejiofor is the recipient of several awards, including numerous nominations in the

narrator of the 2018 Apple TV+ documentary film The Elephant Queen, for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Narrator; and as the director and screenwriter of the 2019 British drama film The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, which saw him receive nominations for the Black Reel Award for Outstanding Breakthrough Screenwriter, two British Independent Film Awards (Best Supporting Actor and Best Debut Director), the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture and the Alfred P. Sloan Prize
―winning the latter two.

In 2008, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the arts.[8] He was elevated to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2015 Birthday Honours.[9]

In February 2024 Ejiofor was awarded an honorary degree from the School of Advanced Study in recognition of the 25 plus years on stage and screen and dedication to the dramatic arts.[52]

References

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External links