Nigeria has never lacked ingenious people who have made their marks anywhere in the world, from sports to science and technology, fashions to literature, music to films. That is why Nigeria is regarded as one of the blessed nation on earth in terms of human resources. In this piece, we have compiled five most prominent actors in the Hollywood who were born in Nigeria or whose parents are from Nigeria.
Adewale Akinloye-Agbaje
Topping our list is this well-built actor and model. Agbaje has made his name in the action film genre and having played many roles in movies such as J.I Joe, The Mummy Returns, Bourne Identity, Lost, Oz, Game of Thrones, and recently, Concussion
He was born in Islington, London to Nigerian parents of Yoruba origin, who were students in the UK. He is fluent in several languages including Yoruba, Italian, and Swahili. He can “get along” in a few other languages, including French. When he was only six weeks old, his biological parents gave him up to a white working class family in Tilbury. His foster parents had at least ten African children, including Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s two sisters, living in their house at certain points. His foster father made a living as a lorry driver and struggled to support the family financially.
When he was eight years old, his biological parents brought him back to Nigeria but, as he was unable to speak the Yoruba language and forbidden by his parents to speak English, he was returned to Tilbury shortly thereafter. The brief exposure to Nigeria left him struggling to reconcile his heritage with the distinctly English culture and environment he was raised in. As a teenager facing a cultural identity crisis, he joined a local skinhead gang in order to escape racial persecution at their hands. At 16 years old, having become a violent thief, his foster parents sent him to a boarding school in Surrey where he ultimately attempted suicide before coming to terms with his background and turning his life around.
He went on to earn a Law degree from King’s College London and a Masters in Law from the University of London. While a university student, Akinnuoye-Agbaje worked in a clothes shop where he was introduced to the world of modeling. His modeling career eventually led him to Hollywood, where he began his acting career with a 1995 role in Congo.
His best known acting roles have been as the imposing convict Simon Adebisi in the 1990s HBO prison series Oz and as Mr. Eko on ABC’s survivor drama Lost. He has numerous film credits since he began acting in 1994 and has appeared in many top films, including The Bourne Identity, in which he played a deposed African dictator, Hitu the police officer in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, Lock-Nah in The Mummy Returns, and Heavy Duty in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.
In 2009, Akinnuoye-Agbaje was in talks with Marvel Studios to play the superhero Black Panther in a proposed film of the same name. In an interview, he stated his excitement about the possibility, saying that “the timing is so right” for a black superhero, and “while I’m in my prime, this is the time… I’m going to keep knocking on their door.” In 2014 Marvel did announce a Black Panther film, though with Chadwick Boseman in the title role.
Akinnuoye-Agbaje has also stated that he will be directing a film about his life story. More recently, he guest starred in the second episode of season 8 of Monk, and played Derek Jameson in the 2011 film The Thing. He portrayed Kurse in the Marvel Studios film Thor: The Dark World. He portrayed the character Malko in the fifth season of Game of Thrones. In 2015 it was reported that Akinnuoye-Abaje voices the lead character of Bilal, a film about the life of Bilal Ibn Rabah set to be released in the second half of the year. In 2015 it was announced that he’d joined the cast of Suicide Squad as the Batman villain Killer Croc.
Hakeem Kae-Kazim
Actor Hakeem Kae-Kazim was born on 1st of October, 1962. He first gained prominence as a stage actor in the United Kingdom, appearing in several productions staged at London’s Royal National Theatre. From there, he made the transition to television, becoming a staple of British dramas in the late ‘80s and throughout the ‘90s. Notable among these roles include a two-episode run on the drama Ellington, and a recurring stint in the children’s series Grange Hill.
Kae-Kazim began appearing in films in 1999, but only gained prominence in 2004 for his role in the critically-acclaimed Hotel Rwanda. The film, a retelling of the efforts of a hotelier (Don Cheadle) in saving refugees during the Rwandan genocide, earned him attention, as it reaped rave reviews and award nominations despite a limited run. However, his only award nomination came in 2004, through a role in the Canadian television miniseres Human Cargo; he took a Gemini nomination in that year.
Nevertheless, Kae-Kazim became more prominent and began appearing in some more mainstream projects. He recently starred in Pirates of the Carribean: At World’s End, provided his voice to an episode of the animated series Ben 10: Alien Force, and appeared in the television special 24: Redemption, as well as in the follow-up seventh season of 24. He later landed roles in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Fourth Kind, Faith and Dreams, Black Gold, Inside Story, Black November, Half of a Yellow Sun, and Gotham. At present, he plays Mr. Scott on the TV series Black Sails.
Kae-Kazim recently made an appearance in Nollywood starring in Obi Emelonye movie Last Flight To Abuja.
John Boyega
John Boyega born on 17th of March 1992 is a British Nigerian actor best known for playing Finn in the 2015 film Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Boyega rose to prominence in the United Kingdom for his role of Moses in the 2011 sci-fi comedy film Attack the Block before attaining international recognition for his work as Finn in the seventh film of the Star Wars series.
Some other credits include historical fiction drama film Half of a Yellow Sun (2013), four episodes of the television series 24: Live Another Day and the drama Imperial Dreams (both 2014).
Boyega was born in Peckham, South London, to Nigerian parents, Abigail and Samson Gboyega. His first role was a leopard in a play at his primary school at the age of 5. Boyega went to church with his family every day. His father, who is a preacher, wanted Boyega to follow in his footsteps and join the ministry. He was noticed by the Artistic Director of Theatre Peckham, Teresa Early, who saw him act in a primary school play and invited him to join the theatre school for talented children between the ages of 9 and 14, after obtaining financial assistance from a hardship fund. He attended Westminster City School as a teenager. He later took part in various school productions and attended classes at Theatre Peckham. He was a performing arts student at South Thames College in Wandsworth and was active in theatre productions there, including the lead in Othello in 2010. Boyega also studied Film and TV at University of Greenwich.
Boyega trained at the Identity School of Acting in Hackney, and appeared in Six Parties at the National Theatre and Category B at the Tricycle Theatre prior to being offered a role in the 2011 film Attack the Block. In September 2011, HBO announced that Boyega had been cast in the boxing drama pilot Da Brick, loosely based on Mike Tyson’s life. Boyega was expected to play Donnie, who is released from a juvenile detention centre on his 18th birthday and begins to examine what it means to be a man. The pilot was written by John Ridley, but was not picked up by HBO. Also in 2011, he acted in the film Junkhearts in which he portrayed a drug dealer who finds some guns and tries to sell them.
Boyega was chosen by Fionnuala Halligan of Screen International as one of the “UK Stars of Tomorrow 2011” and appeared alongside two other actors on the front cover of that magazine in its July 2011 edition.
In March 2012, Boyega was cast in the film adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s book Half of a Yellow Sun.
On 29 April 2014, it was confirmed that Boyega had been cast as a lead character in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It was later revealed Boyega would play Finn, a stormtrooper for the First Order, who leaves the fascist military power after witnessing their cruelty in his first combat mission before joining the fight against them. The film was released on 18 December 2015.
Boyega has stated in an interview that he is a fan of Marvel Comics, and that he had hoped to play the Marvel character Black Panther.
David Oyelowo
David Oyetokunbo Oyelowo was born on April 1, 1976. He is an English actor, producer, director, and writer of Nigerian decent. He has played supporting roles in the films Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), Middle of Nowhere (2012), Lincoln (2012), and garnered praise for portraying Louis Gaines in The Butler (2013). On television, he played MI5 officer Danny Hunter in the British series Spooks (2002–04), and as of 2014, provides the voice of Imperial Security Bureau agent Kallus on the animated series Star Wars Rebels. In 2014, Oyelowo played Martin Luther King, Jr. in the biographical drama film Selma, for which he received his first Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor (Drama). Also in 2014, he starred in the HBO movie Nightingale, for which he won a Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Movie/Miniseries and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie and received a nomination for Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries and TV movie.
Oyelowo was born in Oxford, to Nigerian parents of Yoruba ethnicity. His mother worked for British Rail, and his father, Stephen, worked for British Airways. He studied theatre studies at City and Islington College, where his teacher suggested that he become an actor. Oyelowo enrolled for a year in an art foundation course, at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) He finished his three-year training in 1998. He also spent time with the National Youth Theatre.
Ejiofor was born in London’s Forest Gate, to Nigerian parents of Igbo origin.[10] His father, Arinze, was a doctor, and his mother, Obiajulu, was a pharmacist. His younger sister is CNN correspondent Zain Asher.
Chiwetelu Umeadi “Chiwetel” Ejiofor, born 10 July 1977 is a British actor. After enrolling at the National Youth Theatre in 1995, and gaining a scholarship to 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 part in the film Amistad as James Covey. In 2005 he played gangster Victor Sweet in the film Four Brothers alongside Mark Wahlberg. Ejiofor is known for his portrayal of Okwe in Dirty Pretty Things (2002), the Operative in Serenity (2005), Lola in Kinky Boots (2005), Luke in Children of Men (2006), and Dr. Adrian Helmsley in 2012 (2009). He played Solomon Northup in 12 Years a Slave (2013), for which he received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations, along with the BAFTA Award for Best Actor. He was nominated for a 2014 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for his performance in Dancing on the Edge.
Ejiofor has received numerous awards and nominations for acting, including the BAFTA Orange Rising Star Award in 2006, five Golden Globe Award nominations, and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in Othello in 2008. In 2008, he was awarded an Officer of the OBE by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the arts. He was elevated to Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2015 Birthday Honours.
In 1988, when 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. His father was killed, but Ejiofor survived. He was badly injured, and received scars that are still visible on his forehead.
Ejiofor began acting in school plays at the age of fourteen at Dulwich College and joined the National Youth Theatre. He got into the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art but had to leave 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.
