David Oyelowo is a classically trained
stage actor also known for screen projects like Spooks, As You Like It, Red
Tails, Lincoln and The Butler.
Born in Oxford,
England, on April 1, 1976, David Oyelowo honed his passion for acting into
award-winning stage work, as seen with dramas like Henry VIand Prometheus
Bound. His TV projects have included Spooks, As You
Like It, Small Island andThe No. 1 Ladies' Detective
Agency, and he has starred in big-screen ventures like The Paperboy, Middle
of Nowhere, Lincoln,The Butler and Interstellar.
David Oyelowo was
born in Oxford, England, on April 1, 1976, to Nigerian parents, living in the
United Kingdom until he was 6 years old and then relocating to Nigeria—where he
discovered his family was of royal lineage—for seven years. Oyewolo returned to
the country of his birth and lived in London, though he was bullied at school
by other youth for his courteous manner.
Oyelowo developed a
passion for acting, eventually attending the London Academy of Music and
Dramatic Art, graduating in 1998. During his time as a teen with the National
Youth Music Theatre, he met his future wife, Jessica Watson.
After completing his
studies, Oyelowo took to more stage work, being featured in The
Suppliants. In 2001, his award-winning lead role in Henry VIwas
the first time a king was portrayed by a black actor in a Royal Shakespeare
Company production. He later acted in The God Botherers andPrometheus
Bound.
Oyelowo turned to
television as well, starring for a time in the British spy series Spooks,
billed as MI-5 during its run in American on A&E. He then
launched his international film career with parts in the sci-fi adventure A
Sound of Thunder (2005) and the Idi Amin biopic The Last King
of Scotland (2006), which starred Forest Whitaker, Kerry Washington and
James McAvoy. Oyelowo also co-wrote the BBC movie Graham and Alice (2006)
and continued to shine with Shakespeare, portraying Orlando de Boys in Kennath
Branagh's HBO production of As You Like It (2007).
Oyelowo took on a
rich assortment of big and small screen projects over the years, showing his
versatility and commitment as a thespian. He played a passionate academic in
the 2008 U.S. TV production of A Raisin in the Sunand had a lead
role with Noamie Harris in the 2009 British TV adaptation of the novel Small
Island. He shined in his role as a demanding, rigid executive in Rise
of the Planet of the Apes (2011), and later portrayed a Tuskegee pilot
in Red Tails (2012), with the latter executive produced by
George Lucas.
Other projects on the
actor's plate have included The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (2009), The
Help (2011), Jack Reacher (2012) and the
award-winning Lincoln (2012).
The following year,
Oyelowo was prominently featured in The Butler (2013),
depicting the activist son of characters Cecil and Gloria Gaines, portrayed by
Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey. Oyelowo was reunited with director Lee
Daniels for the film, with the two having worked together previously on 2012'sPaperboy.
Oyewolo had also
co-starred in the 2012 independent drama Middle of Nowhere,
directed by Ava DuVernay. He and DuVernay worked together again for her next
film, the riveting drama Selma (2014), in which Oyelowo
portrays Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The actor has earned a Golden Globe
nomination for the role.
In 2015, Oyewolo
received an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of a psychologically troubled war
veteran in the HBO film "Nightingale."
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