Daniel Kaluuya

Daniel Kaluuya (born 24 February 1989) is a British actor.

Prominent both on screen and stage, he has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards, and a Golden Globe Award.

In 2021, he was named among the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine.

Kaluuya began his acting career as a teenager in improvisational theatre.

Kaluuya was born on 24 February 1989 in London to Ugandan parents.

His mother raised him on a council estate in Camden Town, along with an older sister.

His father lived in Balaka, Malawi and they had no contact until he was 15.

Kaluuya attended Torriano Primary School, and St Aloysius' College, Highgate.

He subsequently took A-level History, Drama and Biology at Camden School for Girls in its co-educational sixth-form.

Kaluuya wrote his first play at the age of nine, after which he began performing improvisational theatre.

He began acting as a child at his local Anna Scher Theatre School and WAC Arts.

Kaluuya appeared in his first credited acting role in 2006 as Reece in the BBC's controversial drama Shoot the Messenger.

Kaluuya then joined the original cast of Skins as Posh Kenneth; he was also a contributing writer on the first two seasons of the series, as well as the head writer of the episodes titled "Jal" and "Thomas".

After Skins, Kaluuya appeared as a guest star in many popular television series such as Silent Witness, the Doctor Who special "Planet of the Dead", and Lewis.

He has also appeared in the sketch show That Mitchell and Webb Look twice and as fan favourite character "Parking Pataweyo" in the sketch show Harry & Paul.

Kaluuya also voiced a character in the BBC Radio 4 sitcom Sneakiepeeks.

He played Posh Kenneth in the first two seasons of the television series Skins (2007–2009); he also co-wrote some of the episodes.

He went on to gain attention for his television roles in the Doctor Who special episode "Planet of the Dead" (2009), Psychoville (2009–2011), The Fades (2011), and the Black Mirror episode "Fifteen Million Merits" (2011).

In 2009, he became a regular cast member in the ITV comedy FM.

At the end of 2009, the Screen International Magazine picked Kaluuya out in their annual report as a UK Star of Tomorrow.

From 2009 to 2011, he portrayed Michael "Tea Leaf" Fry in the dark BBC comedy Psychoville.

Kaluuya drew praise for his leading performance in Sucker Punch at the Royal Court Theatre in 2010.

In 2010, Kaluuya played the lead role in Roy Williams' Sucker Punch at the Royal Court Theatre in London; Kaluuya won rave reviews for his performance and he won both the Evening Standard Award and Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Outstanding Newcomer.

He also had supporting roles in the films Johnny English Reborn (2011), Kick-Ass 2 (2013), and Sicario (2015).

Between 2011 and 2013, Kaluuya appeared in several short films, most notably in Daniel Mulloy's Baby, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and went on to win the Best Short Film Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, as well as the Best Short Film Award at the British Independent Film Awards.

In 2011, he appeared in the sequel to the 2003 film Johnny English, titled Johnny English Reborn, as Agent Tucker.

Also in 2011, he played the role of Mac Armstrong in BBC3's supernatural drama series The Fades.

The episode originally premiered on Channel 4 in 2011, but gained popularity after it was subsequently released on Netflix in the United States.

It was his performance in Black Mirror that attracted the attention of Jordan Peele, who later cast him in Get Out, which proved to be his breakthrough role.

In 2013, he appeared in the superhero comedy film Kick Ass 2.

In 2015, he portrayed an FBI Agent in Denis Villeneuve's thriller film Sicario.

Kaluuya played one of the lead characters opposite Jessica Brown Findlay in "Fifteen Million Merits", an episode of the anthology series Black Mirror, for which he received positive reviews from critics.

In 2017, Kaluuya had his breakthrough starring in Jordan Peele's horror film Get Out, which garnered him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Kaluuya's performance in Get Out, which was released in cinemas on 24 February 2017, attracted significant critical acclaim.

Steven Gaydos of Variety wrote that "the terror, tension, humor, and fury of this powerfully effective cinematic balancing act all rests on the shoulders of this brilliant young British actor who communicates universal anxieties without ever losing the essential home address of his beleaguered African-American hero."

Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair called Kaluuya's performance a "masterful, telling piece of acting."

For his performance, he received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

This was followed by starring roles in Ryan Coogler's superhero film Black Panther (2018), Steve McQueen's crime drama Widows (2018), and Peele's horror film Nope (2022).

For his portrayal of Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton in the biopic Judas and the Black Messiah (2021), he won the BAFTA and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

He has since co-directed the drama The Kitchen (2023).