Idrissa Akuna Elba OBE (September 6, 1972) is an English actor, writer, producer, musician, DJ, rapper, and singer. He is known for roles including Stringer Bell in the HBO series The Wire, DCI John Luther in the BBC One series Luther, and Nelson Mandela in the biographical film Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013). He has been nominated four times for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film, winning one, and was nominated five times for a Prime time Emmy Award.
Elba appeared in Ridley Scott’s American Gangster (2007) and Prometheus (2012). Elba portrayed Heimdall in Thor (2011) and its sequels Thor: The Dark World (2013) and Thor: Ragnarok (2017), as well as Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) and Avengers: Infinity War (2018). He also starred in Pacific Rim (2013), Beasts of No Nation (2015), for which he received BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actor, and Molly’s Game (2017). In 2016, he voiced Chief Bogo in Zootopia, Shere Khan in the live action/CGI adaptation of The Jungle Book, Fluke in Finding Dory, and played the role of Krall in Star Trek Beyond. He made his directorial debut in 2018 with an adaptation of the 1992 novel Yardie by Victor Headley.
In addition to his acting work, Elba performs as a DJ under the moniker DJ Big Driis (or Big Driis the Londoner) and as an R&B musician. In 2016, he was named in the Time 100 list of the Most Influential People in the World. As of May 2019, his films have grossed over $9.8 billion at the global box office, including over $3.6 billion in North America, where he is one of the top 20 highest-grossing actors
Idrissa Akuna Elba, an only child, was born on September 6, 1972 in Hackney, London. His paternal grandfather, Moses, was a sailor and a policeman. His father, Winston, was a Sierra Leonean who worked at Ford Dagenham, and his mother, Eve, was Ghanaian. Elba’s parents were married in Sierra Leone and later moved to London. Elba was brought up in Hackney and East Ham, and 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; having seen an advertisement for a play in a newspaper, Elba auditioned and 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 left school in 1988, and won a place in the National Youth Music Theatre thanks to a £1,500 Prince’s Trust grant. His first acting role was in Crimewatch murder reconstructions and in 1994 appeared in a BBC children’s drama called The Boot Street Band. To support himself between roles in Crimewatch reconstructions, he worked in jobs such as tyre-fitting, cold call advertising sales, and working night shifts at Ford Dagenham. He was working in nightclubs, under the DJ nickname “Big Driis”, aged nineteen, but began auditioning for television roles in his early twenties.
In 1995, Elba 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 (white) 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[10] and went on to appear on the television serial Ultraviolet and later on Dangerfield. He decided to move to New York City soon after. He returned to England occasionally for a television role, such as a part in one of the Inspector Lynley Mysteries. 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. 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 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, it was reported by Variety 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 appeared on Showtime’s The Big C in 2010. At the 69th Golden Globe Awards telecast on 15 January 2012, Elba won the Award for Best Actor in a Series, Mini-Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television for his role on the BBC crime thriller series Luther.
Elba has been married three times: first to Hanne “Kim” Nørgaard (from 1999 to 2003) and then to Sonya Nicole Hamlin (for four months in 2006). He has two children: a daughter with Kim named Isan (born 2002), who resides with Nørgaard in Atlanta, Georgia, and a son named Winston (born 2014) with ex-girlfriend Naiyana Garth. Elba became engaged to Sabrina Dhowre on 10 February 2018, during a screening of his film Yardie at an East London cinema; the pair have been dating since early 2017. They wed on 26 April 2019, in Marrakesh.
Elba states that he is spiritual but not religious. Elba is an avid supporter of Arsenal F.C. In 2015, as part of his Discovery Channel miniseries Idris Elba: No Limits, Elba broke the course record land speed “Flying Mile” for the Pendine Sands.
The Prince’s Trust, a UK youth charity founded by Prince Charles in 1976, which Elba credits with helping to start his career, appointed him as their anti-crime ambassador in April 2009. Elba voiced support for a vote to remain in the European Union for the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum.