Chiwetel Ejiofor is the recipient of various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, two British Independent Film Awards, and nominations for an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards and five Golden Globe Awards.
43 Facts About Chiwetel Ejiofor
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Chiwetel Ejiofor voiced Dr Watson in Sherlock Gnomes and Scar in the 2019 remake of The Lion King and featured in the fantasy film Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor was nominated for a 2014 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his performance on Dancing on the Edge.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor was elevated to Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2015 Birthday Honours.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor was born on 10 July 1977 in Forest Gate, east London, to middle-class Nigerian parents of Igbo descent.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor's father, Arinze, was a doctor, and his mother, Obiajulu, was a pharmacist.
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In 1988, when Chiwetel Ejiofor was 11, during a family trip to Nigeria for a wedding, he and his father were driving to Lagos after the celebrations when their car was involved in a head-on crash with a lorry.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor's father was killed, and Ejiofor was badly injured, receiving scars that are still visible on his forehead.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor began acting in school plays at his junior school, Dulwich Prep London, where he played the gravedigger in William Shakespeare's Hamlet.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor continued acting at his senior school, Dulwich College and joined the National Youth Theatre.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor 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.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor 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.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor made his film debut in the television film Deadly Voyage.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor went on to become a stage actor in London.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor was awarded the Jack Tinker Award for Most Promising Newcomer at the Critics' Circle Theatre Awards in 2000.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor had his first leading film role playing Nicky Burkett in Jeremy Cameron's It Was an Accident.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor starred alongside Hilary Swank in Red Dust, portraying the fictional politician Alex Mpondo of post-apartheid South Africa.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor 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, broadcast by the BBC.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor received acclaim for his performance as a complex antagonist The Operative in the film Serenity.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor played a revolutionary in the film Children of Men.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor's singing and acting performance in Kinky Boots received a Golden Globe Award and British Independent Film Award nomination.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor was nominated for the BAFTA Orange Rising Star Award in 2006, which recognises emerging British film talent.
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In 2007, Chiwetel Ejiofor starred opposite Don Cheadle in Talk to Me, a film based on the true story of Ralph "Petey" Greene, an African-American radio personality in the 1960s and 1970s.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor performed on stage in The Seagull at the Royal Court Theatre from 18 January to 17 March 2007, then later that year reprised his role as Othello at the Donmar Warehouse, alongside Kelly Reilly as Desdemona and Ewan McGregor as Iago.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor narrated the BBC television film Partition: The Day India Burned, which was based on the Partition of India.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor starred as Mike Terry in the 2008 cult film Redbelt that received favourable reviews.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2008 Birthday Honours.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor appeared alongside John Cusack in the film 2012.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor played CIA officer Darryl Peabody in Salt, and the Golden Globe Award-nominated leading role of band creator Louis Lester on the BBC Two drama series Dancing on the Edge, which played on Starz in the United States.
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In 2013, Chiwetel Ejiofor took on the role of Solomon Northup in 12 Years a Slave.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor was always going to be Solomon Northup for me.
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At the Toronto International Film Festival, Chiwetel Ejiofor said he briefly hesitated about playing Northup.
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Since he had not worked with McQueen before, Chiwetel Ejiofor observed the working dynamic between the director and co-star Michael Fassbender, who worked with McQueen on Hunger and Shame.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Solomon with a powerful inner strength, yet he never soft-pedals the silent nightmare that is Solomon's daily existence.
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In 2014, Chiwetel Ejiofor starred in the Nigerian film Half of a Yellow Sun alongside Thandiwe Newton.
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In 2016, Chiwetel Ejiofor co-starred with his friend Benedict Cumberbatch and played Karl Mordo in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Doctor Strange.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor brings that feeling of a Shakespearean villain to bear because of his background as an actor.
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In 2019, Chiwetel Ejiofor made his feature directorial debut with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, adapted from the memoir of the same name from William Kamkwamba, about a boy who built a wind-powered water pump in Malawi.
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In 2022, Chiwetel Ejiofor returned to the role of Mordo for the sequel film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
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In 2015, Chiwetel 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.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor is the recipient of several awards, including numerous nominations in the Best Actor category for his role as Solomon Northup in the 2013 biographical drama film 12 Years a Slave, of which he won the AACTA International, BAFTA, BET, Black Reel awards, in addition to several critical accolades.
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Chiwetel Ejiofor was elevated to Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2015 Birthday Honours.