Chiwetel Ejiofor

Biography

Chiwetel Umeadi Ejiofor CBE is a British actor and director. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award and a Laurence Olivier Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and five Golden Globe Awards. In 2008, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), and in 2015, he was advanced to Commander (CBE) for his services to the arts. After enrolling at the National Youth Theatre in 1995 and attending the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Ejiofor was cast by Steven Spielberg to play a supporting role in the film Amistad (1997) as James Covey. He later won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for Othello (2008). Ejiofor earned the BAFTA Award for Best Actor as well as a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Solomon Northup in 12 Years a Slave (2013). Ejiofor's other films include Dirty Pretty Things (2002), Love Actually (2003), Kinky Boots (2005), Four Brothers (2005), Serenity (2005), Children of Men (2006), Endgame (2009), 2012 (2009), Salt (2010), Savannah (2013), The Martian (2015), Venom: The Last Dance (2024), and Backrooms (2026). He joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe playing Karl Mordo in Doctor Strange (2016) and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). He also voiced Scar in The Lion King (2019). He directed, wrote, and starred in the films The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (2019) and Rob Peace (2024). On television, he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor for his performance as a jazz band leader in the BBC Two miniseries Dancing on the Edge (2014). He also acted in the BBC drama series The Shadow Line (2011), the HBO television film Phil Spector (2013), and the Showtime science fiction series The Man Who Fell to Earth (2022). Ejiofor was born on 10 July 1977 in Forest Gate in the East End of London, to middle-class Nigerian parents of Igbo descent. His father, Arinze, was a doctor, and his mother, Obiajulu, was a pharmacist. His younger sister, Zain, is a CNN correspondent. His other sister, Kandi, is a general practitioner doctor. Ejiofor made his film debut in the television film Deadly Voyage (1996). He went on to become a stage actor in London. 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 in her role as Desdemona. In Steven Spielberg's 1997 film Amistad, he gave support to Djimon Hounsou's Cinque as interpreter Ensign James Covey. In 1999, Ejiofor appeared in the British film G:MT – Greenwich Mean Time. In 2000, he starred in Blue/Orange at the Royal National Theatre (Cottesloe stage), and later at the Duchess Theatre. That same year, his performance as Romeo in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was nominated for the Ian Charleson Award. Ejiofor was awarded the Jack Tinker Award for Most Promising Newcomer at the Critics' Circle Theatre Awards in 2000. For his performance in Blue/Orange, Ejiofor received the London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Outstanding Newcomer in 2000 and a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2001. 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, 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, 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 in post-apartheid South Africa. He played the central role of Prince Alamayou in Peter Spafford's radio play I Was a Stranger, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 17 May 2004, and he played the god Dionysus, alongside Paul Scofield's Cadmus and Diana Rigg's Agave, in Andrew Rissik's play, Dionysus, based upon Euripides' Bacchae, also broadcast by the BBC. He also received acclaim for his performance as a complex antagonist, The Operative, in the film Serenity (2005). Ejiofor played a revolutionary in the film Children of Men (2006). His singing and acting performance in Kinky Boots received a Golden Globe Award and a British Independent Film Award nomination. He was also nominated for the BAFTA Orange Rising Star Award in 2006, which recognises emerging British film talent. Ejiofor's performance in Tsunami: The Aftermath received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film in 2007. In 2007, Ejiofor starred opposite Don Cheadle in Talk to Me, a film based on the true story of Ralph "Petey" Greene (played by Cheadle), an African-American radio DJ.