When Chiwetel Ejiofor was 11, he was in a car crash in Nigeria that killed his father. He was seriously injured and still carries the scars.
Decades later, he became one of the most respected actors of his generation, earning an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his role as Solomon Northup in Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, which won Best Picture at the Academy Awards in 2014.
From Forest Gate to the stage
Ejiofor was born in 1977 in Forest Gate, east London, to Nigerian parents of Igbo heritage. His father was a doctor and his mother a pharmacist. He attended Dulwich College and trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. His talent was recognised early: while still a student, he was cast by Steven Spielberg in Amistad (1997).
He built a strong reputation on stage, playing Othello at the Donmar Warehouse in London in 2007 to great acclaim, and in films including Dirty Pretty Things (2002), Kinky Boots (2005) and Children of Men (2006).
12 Years a Slave
In 12 Years a Slave, Ejiofor played Solomon Northup, a free Black man from New York who was kidnapped in 1841 and sold into slavery in Louisiana. The film, based on Northup’s own memoir, was praised for its unflinching portrayal of slavery. Ejiofor won the BAFTA for Best Actor and was nominated for the Oscar. His co-star Lupita Nyong’o won Best Supporting Actress, and the film won Best Picture.
Director
In 2019, Ejiofor made his feature directing debut with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, which he also wrote and starred in. The Netflix film tells the true story of William Kamkwamba, a Malawian boy who built a wind turbine from scrap to save his village from famine. It was filmed in Malawi and largely in Chichewa, and it was selected as the United Kingdom’s entry for the Oscar for Best International Feature Film.
Honours
Ejiofor was appointed OBE in 2008 and CBE in 2015 for services to drama. He has continued to work across blockbusters and independent films, including the Marvel Doctor Strange films as Mordo and Disney’s The Lion King (2019) as the voice of Scar.
Returning to Nigeria
He has explored his Nigerian heritage on screen, including in Half of a Yellow Sun (2013), the film adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel about the Nigerian civil war, in which he starred alongside Thandiwe Newton.
He survived a crash on a Nigerian road as a boy. As a filmmaker, he chose an African story for his first film, told in an African language.
