Idris Elba
About
Biography
Biography
British-born actor Idris Elba mesmerized American television viewers on three seasons of HBO's gold-standard crime drama, "The Wire" (2002-08), playing Stringer Bell, a brilliant, Machiavellian cocaine entrepreneur aspiring to evolve his operation into real estate and citywide power-brokering. The career-defining role catapult Elba from obscure British actor to international acclaim as one of Hollywood's most wanted men. Also a singer and deejay, releasing records in the former capacity as Driis and working in the latter as Big Driis or DJ Driis the Londoner, Elba rode his smoldering "Wire" ethos to "It" status in both the hip-hop community and broader popular culture, which included a feature lead opposite Beyoncé Knowles in the thriller "Obsessed" (2009) and a prominent multi-episode guest role as the new office boss on the hit comedy, "The Office" (NBC, 2005-2013). After receiving widespread critical acclaim for his portrayal of the titular troubled detective "Luther" (BBC One, 2010-15), Elba was seemingly everywhere, appearing in a string of blockbusters that included the superhero epics "Thor" (2011) and its sequels, Ridley Scott's "Prometheus" (2012), Jon Favreau's live-action "The Jungle Book" (2016) and Aaron Sorkin's "Molly's Game" (2017). As he continued to showcase his versatility, Elba, typically sans his native Cockney accent, carved a niche as a go-to actor for characters exuding a quiet strength and deliberative cool.
He was born Idrissa Akuna Elba in London, England on Sept. 6, 1972, the only child of African immigrants; his mother was originally from Ghana and his father was a Sierra Leonean who worked as an engineer at the Ford plant in Dagenham. Elba spent his early years in Hackney, East London, which he claimed made him technically a Cockney Englishman, but the family later moved to the city's Canning Town area, a largely white neighborhood where Idris found himself periodically the victim of violence at the hands of racist schoolmates. Growing up listening to his father's American soul records, at age 14 he had begun helping his uncle in the latter's successful wedding DJ business and, while at Trinity Comprehensive secondary school in Canning Town, he began participating in school plays. At 16, he earned a grant and joined the National Youth Music Theatre - where he publicly sang for the first time in a production of "Guys and Dolls" - before dropping out of school and beginning a series of jobs to support himself, including his own DJ work under the name Big Driis (he grew to 6'3"), as well as a stint at the same Ford factory at which his father worked. His family discouraged his thespian aspirations, he later said, insisting a career with Ford more promising.
By his early twenties, he was auditioning for television and stage roles, netting his first credited small screen part in "Absolutely Fabulous" (BBC, 1992-2004). He followed that with a series of guest shots, most notably on the long-running crime drama "Silent Witness" (BBC, 1996- ) and the primetime soap "Family Affairs" (Channel 5, 1997-2005), capped with the second male lead in the Channel 4 vampire-themed, sci-fi miniseries, "Ultraviolet" (1998). The next year, he joined the cast of the medical/crime series "Dangerfield" (1995-99). Elba and wife Dormowa Sherman, a Liberian actress he married in 1997, moved to New York, seeking a market where lead roles were open to black actors, but for three years he "couldn't catch a cold," he later told NPR. He worked constantly to pick up American accents and did manage to win the role of Achilles in a 2001 New York stage production of "Troilus and Cressida," a small role in the ill-fated "Buffalo Soldiers" (2001) - a darkly comedic look at larcenous U.S. soldiers in late Cold War-period Berlin, buried when it ran afoul of the country's jingoistic fervor - and a guest shot on NBC's staple cop procedural show "Law & Order" (1990-2010), before scoring an audition with producer David Simon's upcoming HBO series, "The Wire."
Elba initially read for the role of Baltimore drug kingpin Avon Barksdale, returning for multiple callbacks. On the day his daughter was born, the producers awarded him the role of Stringer Bell, Barksdale's less prominent consigliere/business manager, and, when he thanked them in his normal voice, they were stunned to hear his East Ender accent. Raw-nerved in its bleak, humanistic portrayal of both cops and dealers and since lauded by some critics as the best show ever to grace U.S. airwaves, "The Wire" saw his role expand greatly as Elba and the writers nuanced Bell, who took college economics classes, ran dealer meetings with parliamentary rules, and plotted with quiet, cold-blooded resolve to break out of the dog-eat-dog business of the streets to exploit an already corrupt "legitimate" business and political community; to the point of betraying Barksdale. For the latter, Bell paid the ultimate price for it in the show's third season. Still, the role gave Elba nearly instant street cred, certainly in pop-cultural circles as he rubbed elbows with top-tier urban artists and producers such as Sean Combs, Ludacris and Jay-Z - whose 2008 album American Gangster Elba would voice a spoken-word intro for - and even among real drug dealers who had no problems initiating conversations with him in public.
Essence magazine would dub him one of the "Ten Hottest Men on the Planet" in 2004 and 2005 - apropos of which or not, he and Sherman divorced the next year - and his film work would pick up steam to boot. He stole the show in an ostensibly supporting role as a young Southern minister in the indie drama, "The Gospel" (2005), then earned the lead as a conscientious Rwandan army captain caught in the middle of that country's infamous genocide in "Sometimes in April," a made-for-HBO companion piece to the more famous feature, "Hotel Rwanda" (2004). He scored roles in bigger-profile projects, including a major role opposite Hillary Swank in the A-horror flick "The Reaping" (2007) - bookended by a turn as the standard superfluous cop in the next year's B-horror outing "Prom Night" (2008) - and supporting parts in Ridley Scott's "American Gangster" (2007), the zombie flick "28 Weeks Later" (2007), and as the love interest of Gabriel Union in producer-director Tyler Perry's drama, "Daddy's Little Girls" (2007). Elba's success allowed him to revive his musical predilections. He issued an EP, Big Man, and his Hollywood networking would see "Driis" land tracks on movie soundtracks such as those of "Prom Night" and Perry's "Madea Goes to Jail" (2009). After a handful of other supporting roles, most notably reverting to his natural accent with a comic turn in Guy Ritchie's underworld ensemble, "RocknRolla" (2008), he scored a coveted male lead opposite superstar Beyoncé Knowles in the "Fatal Attraction" (1987) redux, "Obsessed," playing a successful businessman whose marriage to Beyoncé Knowles and life are threatened when an attractive but deranged female temp begins stalking him. Though the film received mixed reviews, it surprised films wags in early 2008 by ranking No. 1 during its first box office weekend, earning $27.5 million.
In early 2009, Elba donned a suit again to make a high-profile splash in American TV comedy by joining the cast of NBC's hit "The Office," playing the straight-talking, corporate-level supervisor whose finds his amicable but no-nonsense demeanor mightily challenged by the buffoonery of ever-clueless branch manager Michael Scott (Steve Carell) and his pathos-addled cubicle denizens. Back in his native England, Elba landed the starring role in the crime series "Luther" (BBC One, 2010-15), playing the titular character, a dedicated inspector who suffers a mental breakdown after a traumatic case involving a child killer, which leads him down dark paths in order to catch criminals. While the show itself suffered from being bogged down by familiar cop show tropes, Elba was widely hailed for his powerful performance, with some critics citing it as his best since "The Wire." The actor was genuinely humbled upon learning that he earned nominations for both the Golden Globes and Emmy Awards in 2011; he went on to win the Globe for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie. In fact, 2011 proved to be a banner one, as Elba earned a second Emmy nod for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance as a painter and love interest to a high school teacher (Laura Linney) battling cancer on "The Big C" (Showtime, 2010-13).
The turn of the decade also saw Elba jumping into the world of comic-book adaptations in no fewer than three consecutive projects. First up was a turn as the appropriately named Rogue, a member of the mercenary team "The Losers" (2010), in the action-packed shoot-'em-up co-starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana and Chris Evans. A smaller, but pivotal role came in the form of Heimdall, the all-seeing, all-hearing sentry to the gates of mythical Asgard in the fantasy epic "Thor" (2011). Early the next year, Elba took on the guise of a disgraced monk who enlists the aide of Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage) in his battle against the Devil (Ciaran Hinds) for the over-the-top sequel "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance" (2012). As his performance on "Luther" continued to impress the pundits, leading to a 2012 Golden Globe win, Elba returned to theaters in one of the year's most highly anticipated blockbusters, "Prometheus" (2012), director Ridley Scott's quasi-prequel to his 1979 sci-fi masterpiece "Alien." Next he played an inspiring leader and tough robot pilot in the monster-infested blockbuster "Pacific Rim" (2013), and reprised his part as the imposing Heimdall in the superhero sequel "Thor: The Dark World" (2013). Following another series of "Luther," Elba played the human rights icon Nelson Mandela in the biopic "Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom" (2013). He next starred in the indie drama "Second Coming" (2014) and the action thriller "No Good Deed" (2014). After reprising his role as Heimdall in "Avengers: Age of Ultron" (2015), Elba starred in the indie drama "Beasts of No Nation" (2015) as a feared African rebel commander in charge of a platoon of kidnapped child soldiers, then signed to play the lead role of Roland Deschain in the long-awaited screen adaptation of Stephen King's epic "The Dark Tower." On a lighter note, Elba provided voices for the animated hits "Zootopia" (2016) and "Finding Dory" (2016) and provided voice roles for the live acion/CGI remake of "The Jungle Book" (2016) and the Pixar sequel "Finding Dory" (2016). That same year, Elba starred in action drama "Bastille Day" (2016), indie drama "100 Streets" (2016) and "Star Trek Beyond" (2016). Following the box office bomb "The Dark tower" (2017), Elba reprised his role in "Thor: Ragnarok" (2017) and co-starred in survival drama "The Mountain Between Us" (2017) and Aaron Sorkin's directorial debut "Molly's Game" (2017). Elba moved behind the camera for his directorial debut, crime drama "Yardie" (2018), he gained extra attention at the film's London premiere when he asked longtime girlfriend Sabrina Dhowre to marry him on-stage.
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Producer (Feature Film)
Music (Feature Film)
Cast (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1995
Landed first role on the British series "Bramwell" (ITV)
1997
Joined the cast of the British soap opera "Family Affairs" (Five)
1998
Cast as a regular on acclaimed series "Ultraviolet" (The Sci Fi Channel)
1999
Played a forensic scientist on the British series "Dangerfield" (BBC)
2001
Co-starred with Joaquin Phoenix in "Buffalo Soldiers"
2001
Cast as Achilles in the stage play "Troilus and Cressida" in NYC
2002
Breakout role as drug kingpin Russell 'Stringer' Bell on HBO drama series "The Wire"
2005
Portrayed Captain Augustin Muganza in the HBO film "Sometimes in April" about the Rwandan Genocide
2005
Played Rev. Frank, a Southern Baptist minister, in Rob Hardy's spiritual drama "The Gospel"
2007
Co-produced and performed on the intro to Jay-Z's album <i>American Gangster</i>
2007
Landed a supporting role in Ridley Scott's "American Gangster" alongside Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe
2007
Played the lead role in Tyler Perry's "Daddy's Little Girls' as a blue-collar mechanic who falls in love with a six-figure attorney
2007
Cast as the commander of an American-led NATO force in the sequel "28 Weeks Later"
2008
Co-starred in Guy Ritchie's "RocknRolla"
2008
Appeared in the role of Charlie Kgotso on the pilot episode of HBO's "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency"
2009
Starred in the thriller "Obsessed" with Beyonce Knowles and Ali Larter
2009
Played the recurring role of Charles Miner, a new rival to Dunder Mifflin regional manager Michael Scott (Steve Carell) on NBC's "The Office"
2010
Cast as William Roque in the adaptation of the comic book series "The Losers"
2010
Portrayed Laura Linney's lover on Showtime's "The Big C"
2010
Cast as Detective Chief Inspector John Luther on the psychological crime series "Luther"; aired in the U.S. on BBC America
2011
Portrayed Heimdall in Kenneth Branagh's big screen adaptation of "Thor"
2012
Cast opposite Nicolas Cage in the sequel "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance"
2012
Played the titular ship's captain in Ridley Scott's "Alien" prequel "Prometheus"
2013
Featured in Guillermo del Toro's giant monster movie "Pacific Rim"
2013
Portrayed Nelson Mandela in "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom"
2015
Appeared as the Commandant in "Beasts of No Nation"
2016
Voiced Chief Bogo in animated Disney hit "Zootopia"
2016
Lent his voice to Disney again in the Pixar sequel "Finding Dory"
2016
Played the villain Krall in "Star Trey Beyond"
2017
Starred as Kent on mini-series "Guerrilla"
2017
Joined the cast of Aaron Sorkin's "Molly's Game"
2017
Co-starred with Kate Winslet in survival drama "The Mountain Between Us"
2017
Reprised Heimdall role in "Thor: Ragnarok"
2018
Made his directorial debut with the crime drama "Yardie"
