Idris Elba

Idrissa Akuna Elba (born 6 September 1972) is an English actor, rapper, singer, and DJ.

Idrissa Akuna Elba was born on 6 September 1972 in the London Borough of Hackney, to Winston Elba, a Sierra Leonean Creole man who worked at the Ford Dagenham plant, and Eve, a Ghanaian woman.

His parents were married in Sierra Leone and later moved to London.

Elba was raised in Hackney and East Ham; he shortened his first name to "Idris" at school in Canning Town, where he first became involved in acting.

He credits The Stage with giving him his first big break.

After seeing an advertisement for a play in it, he auditioned and subsequently met his first agent while performing in the role.

In 1986, he began helping an uncle with his wedding DJ business; within a year, he had started his own DJ company with some of his friends.

Elba briefly attended Barking and Dagenham College, leaving school in 1988 and winning a place in the National Youth Music Theatre after a £1,500 Prince's Trust grant.

In order to support himself between roles in his early career, he worked in odd jobs including tyre-fitting, cold-calling and night shifts at Ford Dagenham.

He worked in nightclubs under the DJ nickname "Big Driis" during his adolescence, but began auditioning for television roles in his early twenties.

Elba's first acting role was in Crimewatch murder reconstructions, and in 1994, he appeared in a BBC children's drama called The Boot Street Band.

In 1995, he landed his first significant role on a series called Bramwell, a medical drama set in 1890s England.

He played a central character in an episode of Season 1, an African petty thief named Charlie Carter, who lost his wife to childbirth and had to figure out how to support his newborn daughter.

His first named role arrived earlier in 1995, when he was cast as a gigolo on the "Sex" episode of Absolutely Fabulous.

Many supporting roles on British television followed, including series such as The Bill and The Ruth Rendell Mysteries.

He joined the cast of the soap opera Family Affairs and went on to appear on the television serial Ultraviolet and later on Dangerfield.

He decided to move to New York City soon afterwards.

He returned to England occasionally for a television role, such as a part in one of the Inspector Lynley Mysteries.

In 1997, he starred in the first two episodes of the second series "Blood, Sweat and Tears" in Silent Witness.

In 2001, Elba played Achilles in a stage production of Troilus and Cressida in New York City.

After a supporting turn on a 2001 episode of Law & Order, Elba landed a starring role on the 2002 HBO drama series The Wire.

An alumnus of the National Youth Music Theatre in London, he is known for roles including Stringer Bell in the HBO series The Wire (2002–2004), DCI John Luther in the BBC One series Luther (2010–2019), and Nelson Mandela in the biographical film Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013).

For Luther, he received four nominations each for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor, winning one of the former.

From 2002 to 2004, Elba portrayed Russell "Stringer" Bell in the series, perhaps his best-known role in the United States.

In 2005, he portrayed Captain Augustin Muganza in Sometimes in April, an HBO film about the Rwandan genocide.

Elba appeared in American Gangster (2007), Obsessed (2009) and Prometheus (2012).

Elba appeared on the 2007 BET special Black Men: The Truth.

He appeared as Charlie Gotso on The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, filmed in Botswana.

The series premiered on 23 March 2008, Easter Sunday, on BBC One, receiving a high 6.3 million viewers and 27% of the audience share.

In January 2009, Variety reported that Elba would portray Charles Miner, a new rival to Dunder Mifflin regional manager Michael Scott (Steve Carell) for NBC's The Office.

Elba appeared in a six-episode story arc later in the 2009 season, as well as the season finale.

In September 2009, he signed a deal to star as the lead role on the six-part BBC television series Luther, which aired in May 2010.

He portrayed Heimdall in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), beginning with Thor (2011), and Bloodsport in The Suicide Squad (2021), set in the DC Extended Universe.

He also starred in Pacific Rim (2013), Beasts of No Nation (2015), for which he received Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for Best Supporting Actor, and Molly's Game (2017).

One of his other prominent roles was that of Rufus Buck in the Western film The Harder They Fall (2021).

Elba has also voiced characters in Zootopia, The Jungle Book, Finding Dory (all 2016) and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022).

In 2016, Elba was named in the Time 100 list of the Most Influential People in the World.

He made his directorial debut with Yardie (2018).

As of May 2019, his films have grossed over US$9.8 billion at the global box office, including over US$3.6 billion in North America, where he is one of the top 20 highest-grossing actors.

Apart from acting, Elba performs as a DJ under the moniker DJ Big Driis or Idris and as an R&B singer.