BAFTA Award winning actor, writer and director, Chiwetel Ejiofor has a breadth of critically acclaimed work across stage and screen. Chiwetel was last in Sophie Barthes’ THE POD GENERATION with Emilia Clarke, which had its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival. He has since adapted and directed ROB PEACE, based on the bestselling book by Jeff Hobbs. ROB PEACE will premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. It has also been announced that Chiwetel will join Tom Hardy in the next installment of Sony and Marvel’s ‘Venom’ blockbuster franchise VENOM 3, alongside Juno Temple.In 2022, Chiwetel was seen leading the Showtime series THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH, based on the Walter Tevis novel and Nicolas Roeg’s cult classic 1976 film starring the late great David Bowie. Naomie Harris joined Chiwetel as the female lead. In May of that year, he reprised the role of ‘Baron Mordo’ in DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS, Marvel’s much-anticipated second instalment of 2016’s hugely successful DOCTOR STRANGE.
In 2021, Chiwetel appeared in Paramount’s action sci-fi thriller INFINITE with Mark Wahlberg, directed by Antoine Fuqua. In the same year, he starred in Doug Liman’s LOCKED DOWN on HBO Max, a pandemic-set blend of romantic comedy and heist movie filmed in London during the second lockdown. Netflix film THE OLD GUARD followed, with Charlize Theron and Matthias Schoenaerts. The film became one of Netflix’s most watched original films of all time. Chiwetel will return for the sequel.
The beginning of March 2019 saw Chiwetel’s critically acclaimed directorial debut THE BOY WHO HARNESSED THE WIND on Netflix, which he adapted from the book of the same name, written by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer.
Chiwetel voiced the infamous character of ‘Scar’ in Disney’s THE LION KING in 2019, a CG animated re-imagining of the 1994 Walt Disney classic. He also reteamed with Angelina Jolie in MALEFICENT: MISTRESS OF EVIL, the sequel to the 2014 film MALEFICENT. In the same year, he was also heard narrating the Apple TV+ documentary THE ELEPHANT QUEEN, which takes audiences across the African savannah, and into the heart of an elephant family. His voiceover work garnered him an Emmy nomination for ‘Outstanding Narrator’. He has most recently narrated BBC Africa and National Geographic (Latin America)’s DAY ZERO, a call to arms water crisis film.
The start of 2018 saw Chiwetel in MARY MAGDALENE alongside Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix, directed by Garth Davis. Chiwetel was seen in Netflix’s COME SUNDAY alongside Lakeith Stanfield, Jason Segel and Martin Sheen shortly after. March of the same year saw Chiwetel lend his voice in SHERLOCK GNOMES, alongside Emily Blunt, Johnny Depp, James McAvoy, Dame Maggie Smith, and Sir Michael Caine.
In addition to starring opposite Benedict Cumberbatch in 2016’s DOCTOR STRANGE, Chiwetel was also seen in John Hillcoat’s crime thriller TRIPLE 9. He was supported by a stellar cast including Kate Winslet, Casey Affleck, Gal Gadot, Aaron Paul, and Norman Reedus.
In 2015 Chiwetel was awarded a CBE for services to drama and also starred in a number of films and returned to the stage in EVERYMAN, Rufus Norris’ inaugural play as Artistic Director of The National Theatre. In addition, he was seen in the award-winning sci-fi drama THE MARTIAN alongside Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, and Kate Mara, as well as Craig Zobel’s thriller Z FOR ZACHARIAH alongside Chris Pine and Margot Robbie, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival. Chiwetel starred in another thriller - SECRET IN THEIR EYES - directed by Billy Ray and co-starring Julia Roberts and Nicole Kidman. The film was adapted from Juan Jose Campanella’s Oscar winning Argentinean film, El Secreto De Sus Ojos.
2014 was a particularly memorable year for him, following the huge success of Steve McQueen’s Oscar winning film, TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE. Chiwetel played the role of ‘Solomon Northup’ which gained him Academy Award, Golden Globe and SAG nominations and won him a Best Actor BAFTA. Later in the year, Chiwetel also starred in HALF OF A YELLOW SUN with Thandie Newton and Joseph Mawle.
2013 saw Chiwetel star in Stephen Poliakoff’s BBC series DANCING ON THE EDGE which gained him a Golden Globe nomination for ‘Best Actor in a Miniseries’ and an Emmy Award nomination. Chiwetel also returned to the stage in the Young Vic’s adaptation of A SEASON IN THE CONGO, directed by Joe Wright.
In 2011, television audiences saw him in the award winning THE SHADOW LINE, a thrilling drama for the BBC. SALT alongside Angelina Jolie and Liev Schreiber followed, and in 2009 he starred in Roland Emmerich’s 2012 with John Cusack, Danny Glover and Thandie Newton. The same year his performance in ENDGAME, Channel 4’s moving drama set in South Africa, earned him a Golden Globe nomination for the ‘Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television’.
In 2008 he was seen in three very different roles; his performance in the title role of Michael Grandage’s OTHELLO at the Donmar Warehouse alongside Kelly Reilly and Ewan McGregor was unanimously commended and won him the 2008 Olivier Award for ‘Best Actor’, the Evening Standard Theatre Award for ‘Best Actor’, as well as nominations for the South Bank Show Awards 2009 and the What’s On Stage Theatregoers’ Choice Awards. His other stage credits include Roger Michell’s BLUE/ORANGE in 2000 which received an Olivier Award for Best Play, and the same year Tim Supple’s ROMEO AND JULIET in which Chiwetel took the title role.
In 1996, Chiwetel caught the attention of Steven Spielberg who cast him in the critically acclaimed AMISTAD, starring alongside Morgan Freeman and Anthony Hopkins. He returned to the big screen in Stephen Frears’ 2001 thriller DIRTY PRETTY THINGS for which his performance as ‘Okwe’ won him the Best Actor Award at the British Independent Film Awards, the Evening Standard Film Awards, and the San Diego Film Critics Society Awards. In 2003, he co-starred in three films: Richard Curtis’ LOVE ACTUALLY, SLOW BURN and Woody Allen’s MELINDA AND MELINDA. 2008 saw Chiwetel in Ridley Scott’s AMERICAN GANGSTER, Don Cheadle’s TALK TO ME, and David Mamet’s REDBELT. His other film credits include KINKY BOOTS (2005), the urban drama FOUR BROTHERS, Spike Lee’s heist film INSIDE MAN, and the Oscar nominated CHILDREN OF MEN.