Chiwetel Ejiofor
- ️Sun Jul 10 1977
"Ejiofor" redirects here. For the Nigerian football player, see Eric Ejiofor.
| Chiwetel Ejiofor | |
|---|---|
 Ejiofor at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival premiere of Redbelt |
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| Born | Chiwetelu Umeadi Ejiofor 10 July 1977 (age 34) Forest Gate, London, England, UK |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1995–present |
Chiwetelu Umeadi "Chiwetel" Ejiofor,[1] OBE (pronounced /ˈtʃuːwɨtɛl ˈɛdʒi.oʊfɔr/ chew-i-tel ej-i-oh-for;[2] born 10 July 1977)[1][3] is an English actor of stage and screen. He has received numerous acting awards and award nominations, including the 2006 BAFTA Awards Rising Star, three Golden Globe Awards' nominations, and the 2008 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in Othello.
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Early years
Ejiofor was born in London's Forest Gate, to Nigerian parents who belonged to the Igbo ethnic group.[4] His father, Arinze, was a doctor, and his mother, Obiajulu, was a pharmacist. In 1988, when Ejiofor was 11, tragedy occurred during a family trip to Nigeria for a wedding. After the celebrations, his father and Ejiofor were driving to Lagos, when their car was involved in a head-on crash with a lorry. His father was killed, but Ejiofor survived despite being badly injured, receiving the trademark scars on his forehead.[5][6] Ejiofor began acting in school plays at the age of thirteen at Dulwich College and joined the National Youth Theatre. 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, who played Desdemona.
Career
Ejiofor made his film debut in the television movie Deadly Voyage in 1996. He went on to become a prominent stage actor in London. In Steven Spielberg's Amistad, he gave memorable support to Djimon Hounsou's Cinque as interpreter Ens. James Covey. In 1999, he appeared in the British film G:MT. 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 2000 Critics' Circle Theatre Awards. For his performance in Blue/Orange, he received the 2000 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Outstanding Newcomer and a 2001 nomination for the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award Best Supporting Actor.
Ejiofor had his first leading film role in the 2002's Dirty Pretty Things, for which he won a British Independent Film Award for best actor. He also starred in a 2003 BBC adaptation of Chaucer's The Knight's Tale as well as another BBC series Trust in the same year. He starred alongside Hilary Swank in 2004's Red Dust, portraying the fictional politician Alex Mpondo of post-apartheid South Africa. He played the central part 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 2005 movie Serenity. Ejiofor played a revolutionary in the highly acclaimed 2006 film Children of Men. His singing and acting performance in Kinky Boots received Golden Globe and British Independent Film Award nominations. He was also nominated for the 2006 BAFTA Rising Star Award, which recognises emerging British film talent. Ejiofor's performance in Tsunami: The Aftermath received a 2007 Golden Globe nomination for best actor in a miniseries or film made for TV.
In 2007, he starred opposite Don Cheadle in Talk to Me,[7] a film based on the true story about Ralph "Petey" Greene (played by Cheadle), an African American radio personality in the '60s and '70s. He performed on stage in The Seagull at the Royal Court Theatre from 18 January to 17 March 2007.
Ejiofor is considered one of the leading candidates to play T'Challa in the proposed Black Panther movie based on the Marvel comic books character.
In 2007, he reprised his role as Othello at the Donmar Warehouse, alongside Kelly Reilly as Desdemona, and Ewan McGregor as Iago. The production received favorable reviews, with particularly strong praise for Ejiofor. "Chiwetel Ejiofor produces one of the most memorable performances of Othello in recent years".[8] He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance.
He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours.[9] 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.[10]
Ejiofor was the lead alongside John Cusack in the 2009 film 2012. The film went on to gross over 700 million dollars, and is among the list of highest-grossing films of all time and placing 5th of top films of 2009.
Selected works
Filmography
| Year | Film | Role | Notes | Awards and nominations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Deadly Voyage | Ebow | ||
| 1997 | Amistad | Ens. James Covey | ||
| 1999 | G:MT - Greenwich Mean Time | Rix | ||
| 2002 | Dirty Pretty Things | Okwe | American Black Film Festival Award for Best Performance by an Actor Black Reel Award for Best Actor British Independent Film Award for Best Actor Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actor San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Actor Nominated — British Independent Film Award for Best Newcomer Nominated — Chicago Film Critics Association for Most Promising Performer Nominated — European Film Award for Best Actor Nominated — London Film Critics' Circle Award for British Actor of the Year Nominated — Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Breakthrough Performance Nominated — Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor |
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| 2003 | Twelfth Night, or What You Will | Orsino | TV movie | |
| Love Actually | Peter | Storyline: Juliette, Peter and Mark | Nominated — Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards Best Ensemble Acting | |
| 2004 | She Hate Me | Frank Wills | ||
| Red Dust | Alex Mpondo | |||
| Melinda and Melinda | Ellis | |||
| 2005 | Four Brothers | Victor Sweet | Nominated — Black Reel Award for Best Ensemble | |
| Serenity | The Operative | Nominated — Black Reel Award for Best Supporting Actor | ||
| Slow Burn | Ty Trippin | |||
| Kinky Boots | Lola | Nominated — Black Reel Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — Black Movie Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role Nominated — British Independent Film Award for Best Actor Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy |
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| 2006 | Inside Man | Detective Bill Mitchell | ||
| Children of Men | Luke | Nominated — Black Reel Award for Best Supporting Actor | ||
| Tsunami: The Aftermath | Ian Carter | TV mini-series | Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film Nominated — Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Mini-Series, TV Film or Dramatic Special |
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| 2007 | Talk to Me | Dewey Hughes | Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male Nominated — Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture |
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| American Gangster | Huey Lucas | Nominated — Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture | ||
| 2008 | Redbelt | Mike Terry | Nominated — Black Reel Award for Best Actor | |
| Slapper | Short Film, Writer/Director | |||
| 2009 | Endgame | Thabo Mbeki | Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film | |
| 2012 | Adrian Helmsley | Nominated — Black Reel Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture |
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| 2010 | Salt | Peabody | ||
| Tonight at Noon | Lee/Evans | |||
| 2011 | The Shadow Line | Jonah Gabriel | TV series[11] |
Theatre
| Year(s) of appearance |
Work | Role | Awards and nominations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Macbeth (first performed c. 1607) by William Shakespeare |
Malcolm | |
| 1999 | Sparkleshark (first performed 1993) by Philip Ridley |
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| 2000 | Blue/Orange (2000) by Joe Penhall |
Chris | Jack Tinker Award for Most Promising Newcomer, 2000 Critics' Circle Theatre Awards
Outstanding Newcomer, 2000 London Evening Standard Theatre Award |
| Romeo and Juliet (c. 1595) by William Shakespeare |
Romeo | Nomination: Ian Charleson Award | |
| Peer Gynt (first performed 1876) by Henrik Ibsen |
Young Peer | ||
| 2002 | The Vortex (first performed 1924) by Noël Coward Donmar Warehouse, London |
Nicky Lancaster | |
| 2007 | The Seagull (1895) by Anton Chekhov (2007 translation by Christopher Hampton) The Royal Court, London |
Boris Alexeyevich Trigorin | |
| Othello (c. 1603) by William Shakespeare |
Othello | 2008 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor |
References
- ^ a b http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/individual/684742
- ^ inogolo.com
- ^ born in 1977, as stated by Ejiofor at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_UDXHRlCRs, at 9:30 mark
- ^ Hattenstone, Simon (Saturday 10 July 2004). "The rainbow's end Arts". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2004/jul/10/theatre.dirtyprettythings. "Life, he says, was always precarious for his parents in Nigeria - they belonged to the Christian Ibo tribe..."
- ^ Raphael, Amy. "Almost famous", The Guardian, 3 November 2002. Accessed 9 July 2007.
- ^ Husband, Stuart (11 November 2007). "Chiwetel Ejiofor: it's always the quiet ones...". The Daily Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/11/11/sv_chiwetelejiofor.xml&page=2. Retrieved 28 April 2010.[dead link]
- ^ Talk to Me, FocusFeatures.com. Accessed 29 July 2007.
- ^ Press reviews: Othello, bbc.co.uk. Accessed 5 December 2007
- ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 58729. p. 10. 14 June 2008.
- ^ Ejiofor, Chiwetel (June 18, 2008). "Can you bring it down a notch, Bill?". London: guardian.co.uk. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/jun/18/news.features. Retrieved August 17, 2010.
- ^ Chiwetel Ejiofor at the Internet Movie Database, accessed 10 December 2010
External links
- Chiwetel Ejiofor at the Internet Movie Database
- Chiwetel Ejiofor biography and filmography at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
| v · d · eLaurence Olivier Award for Best Actor (2001–2025) |
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Conleth Hill (2001) · Roger Allam (2002) · Simon Russell Beale (2003) · Matthew Kelly (2004) · Richard Griffiths (2005) · Brian Dennehy (2006) · Rufus Sewell (2007) · Chiwetel Ejiofor (2008) · Derek Jacobi (2009) · Mark Rylance (2010) · Roger Allam (2011) |
| Complete list · (1985–2000) · (2001–2025) |