Chiwetel Ejiofor
Birthdate: Jul 10, 1977
Birthplace: Forest Gate, London, England, UK
English actor, writer and director Chiwetel Ejiofor is renowned for his portrayal of Solomon Northup in 12 Years a Slave (2013), for which he received Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations, along with the BAFTA Award for Best Actor. He is also known for playing Okwe in Dirty Pretty Things (2002), the Operative in Serenity (2005), Lola in Kinky Boots (2005), Luke in Children of Men (2006), Dr. Adrian Helmsley in 2012 (2009) and Dr. Vincent Kapoor in The Martian (2015).
Chiwetelu Umeadi Ejiofor was born on July 10, 1977 in Forest Gate, London, England, to Nigerian parents, Obiajulu (Okaford), a pharmacist, and Arinze Ejiofor, a doctor. Chiwetel attended Dulwich College in South-East London. By the age of 13, he was appearing in numerous school and National Youth Theatre productions and subsequently attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA).
Ejiofor caught the attention of Steven Spielberg who cast him in the critically acclaimed Amistad (1997) alongside Morgan Freeman and Anthony Hopkins. He has since been seen on the big screen in numerous features including Stephen Frears' Dirty Pretty Things (2002) (for which he won Best Actor at the British Independent Film Awards, the Evening Standard Film Awards, and the San Diego Film Critics Society Awards), Love Actually (2003), Woody Allen's Melinda and Melinda (2004), Kinky Boots (2005), Inside Man (2006), Children of Men (2006), American Gangster (2007) and Talk to Me (2007), for which his performance won him an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Ejiofor has balanced his film and television commitments with a number of prestigious stage productions. In 2008, his portrayal of the title role in Michael Grandage's "Othello" at the Donmar Warehouse alongside Ewan McGregor was unanimously commended and won him best actor at the 2008 Laurence Olivier Awards and Evening Standard Theatre Awards. He also received nominations in the South Bank Show Awards and the What's On Stage Theatregoers' Choice Awards in 2009. His other stage roles include Roger Michell's "Blue/Orange" in 2000 which received the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Play, and the same year Tim Supple's "Romeo and Juliet" in which Ejiofor portrayed the title role.
Following his television debut in the series episode Deadly Voyage (1996), Ejiofor has complimented his film and theatre work on the small screen in productions including Murder in Mind (2001), created by the award-winning writer Anthony Horowitz, Trust (2003), Twelfth Night, or What You Will (2003), and Canterbury Tales (2003). His television appearance in the hard hitting emotional drama Tsunami: The Aftermath (2006) alongside Toni Collette, Sophie Okonedo and Tim Roth earned him a nomination for a Golden Globe Award as well as an NAACP Image award.
Ejiofor also appeared in such notable films as Endgame (2009), Channel 4's moving drama set in South Africa for which his performance earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Miniseries; Roland Emmerich's action feature 2012 (2009), opposite John Cusack, Danny Glover and Thandiwe Newton; and Salt (2010), opposite Angelina Jolie and Liev Schreiber. In 2013, he starred in Half of a Yellow Sun (2013) and 12 Years a Slave (2013), receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for the latter film.
Chiwetel Ejiofor Photos and Videos
Personal life
Chiwetel Ejiofor was born and raised in London, England by his Nigerian-born parents Arinze (doctor) and Obiajulu (pharmacist). Zain (CNN correspondent) and Kandi (doctor) are Ejiofor’s two sisters. Ejiofor attended Dulwich College Preparatory School and Dulwich College, where he performed in both stage productions. Ejiofor became a National Youth Theatre member, then attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art for a year before his professional career took off. Ejiofor’s height is 5’ 10½ ”. Ejiofor’s estimated net worth is $16 million.
Known For
Dirty Pretty Things
(2002)
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
(2019)
Awards
Chiwetel Ejiofor was born and raised in London, England by his Nigerian-born parents Arinze (doctor) and Obiajulu (pharmacist). Ejiofor’s two sisters are Zain (CNN correspondent) and Kandi (doctor). Ejiofor attended Dulwich College Preparatory School and Dulwich College, where he performed in both school’s stage production. Ejiofor became a member of the National Youth Theatre, and then attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art for a year before his professional career took off. Ejiofor’s height is 5’ 10½ ”. Ejiofor’s estimated net worth is $16 million.
Golden Globe
Golden Globes, USA
Golden Globe
Golden Globes, USA
Independent Spirit Award
Film Independent Spirit Awards
Chiwetel Ejiofor Movies
actor
Upcoming (1)
Previous (47)
- 2024 |
Venom: The Last Dance
Eddie and Venom, on the run, face pursuit from both worlds. As circumstances tighten, they're compelled to make a heart-wrenching choice that could mark the end of their symbiotic partnership.
- 2024 |
- 2023 |
The Pod Generation
asAlvy Novy
In a not-so-distant future, tech giant Pegazus offers couples the opportunity to share their pregnancies via detachable artificial wombs or pods. And so begins Rachel and Alvy's wild ride to parenthood in this brave new world.
- 2023 |
Talk to Me
asDewey Hughes
When a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand, they become hooked on the new thrill, until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces.
- 2022 |
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
asBaron Mordo
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
Doctor Strange teams up with a mysterious teenage girl from his dreams who can travel across multiverses, to battle multiple threats, including other-universe versions of himself, which threaten to wipe out millions across the mul...
- 2021 | Day Zeroas Narrator
- 2021 | Locked Downas Paxton
- 2021 |
- 2021 |
Endgame
asThabo Mbeki
Chen Xiaomeng is a theater actor who just can't catch a break in life. His career is in shambles, his love life is depressing, and he can't even properly commit suicide. Before he takes another attempt at suicide, he decides to visit the local bathhouse so he can die with dignity. In the bathhouse, Xiaomeng accidentally causes a man to slip on a piece of soap and falls into a deep coma. In a split second, he decides to switch places with the comatose man, only to discover that the man is a renowned professional assassin. Under his new identity, Xiaomeng is forced to undertake the assassin's missions. Meanwhile, the assassin wakes up in the hospital with no memory of his identity. Believing that he's the failed actor, he begins piece together his 'past life' with the help of single mother Li Xiang. As he tries to 'continue' his life as an actor, the amnesiac assassin and Li Xiang develop a bond. But when the assassin regains his real memories, our three heroes become entangled in messy and complicated ways.
- 2020 | The Old Guardas Copley
- 2019 | The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
- 2019 | The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
- 2019 | The Boy Who Harnessed the Windas Trywell Kamkwamba
- 2019 |
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
asConall
Maleficent and her goddaughter Aurora begin to question the complex family ties that bind them as they are pulled in different directions by impending nuptials, unexpected allies, and dark new forces at play.
- 2019 |
The Lion King
asScar
After the murder of his father, a young lion prince flees his kingdom only to learn the true meaning of responsibility and bravery.
- 2019 |
- 2018 | Come Sundayas Carlton Pearson
- 2018 | Mary Magdaleneas Peter
- 2018 | The Elephant Queen
- 2016 | The Long Way Home: Making the Martian
- 2016 |
Doctor Strange
asMordo
While on a journey of physical and spiritual healing, a brilliant neurosurgeon is drawn into the world of the mystic arts.
- 2016 |
- 2015 | National Theatre Live: Everymanas Everyman
- 2015 |
Secret in Their Eyes
asRay Kasten
A tight-knit team of rising investigators, along with their supervisor, is suddenly torn apart when they discover that one of their own teenage daughters has been brutally murdered.
- 2015 |
The Martian
asVincent Kapoor
An astronaut becomes stranded on Mars after his team assume him dead, and must rely on his ingenuity to find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive.
- 2015 | Z for Zachariahas John Loomis
- 2013 | Half of a Yellow Sunas Odenigbo
- 2013 |
12 Years a Slave
asSolomon Northup
In the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.
- 2013 | Savannahas Christmas Moultrie
- 2010 |
- 2009 | 2012as Adrian Helmsley
- 2008 | The John Akii Bua Story: An African Tragedyas John Akii Bua
- 2008 | Redbeltas Mike Terry
- 2007 | American Gangsteras Huey Lucas
- 2005 | Slow Burnas Ty Trippin
- 2006 | Children of Menas Luke
- 2005 | Kinky Bootsas Lola
- 2006 | Inside Manas Detective Bill Mitchell
- 2005 | Four Brothersas Victor Sweet
- 2004 | Melinda and Melindaas Ellis Moonsong
- 2004 | Red Dustas Alex Mpondo
- 2003 | 3 Blind Miceas Mark Hayward
- 2003 |
Love Actually
asPeter
Follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England.
- 2002 | Dirty Pretty Thingsas Okwe
- 2001 | My Friend Sowetoas Soweto
- 2000 | It Was an Accidentas Nicky Burkett
- 1999 | G:MT Greenwich Mean Timeas Rix
Facts About Chiwetel Ejiofor
Philanthropy: Chiwetel Ejiofor received the Global Promise Award in 2015 for his extensive charity work in Africa for the West African non-profit welfare group The GEANCO Foundation; Ejiofor has also supported the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR.
Family Tragedy: Ejiofor survived a car crash in Nigeria that killed his father in 1988 when Ejiofor was age 11.
Marvelous: Chiwetel Ejiofor is one of the few actors to appear in multiple Marvel franchises (the Doctor Strange and Venom series) and portray different characters—Karl Mordo in the former and Rex Strickland in the latter—rather than continue the same character across franchises.
Chiwetel Ejiofor News
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