Chiwetel Ejiofor Movies and Career Information

Chiwetelu Umeadi "Chiwetel" Ejiofor, OBE (pronounced /ˈtʃuːwɨtɛl ˈɛdʒi.oʊfɔr/ CHEW-i-tel EJ-i-oh-for; born 10 July 1977) is a British actor of stage and screen. He has received numerous acting awards and award nominations, including the 2006 BAFTA Awards Rising Star, three Golden Globe Awards' nominations, and the 2007 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in Othello. Ejiofor was born in London's Forest Gate to Nigerian parents who belonged to the Igbo ethnic group. His father, Arinze, was a doctor, and his mother, Obiajulu, was a pharmacist. In 1988, when Ejiofor was 11, tragedy occurred during a family trip to Nigeria for a wedding. After the celebrations, his father Arinze and Ejiofor were driving to Lagos when their car was involved in a head-on crash with a lorry. His father Arinze was killed, but Ejiofor survived despite being badly injured. He began acting in school plays at the age of thirteen at Dulwich College and joined the National Youth Theatre and played the title role in Othello at the Bloomsbury Theatre in September 1995, and again at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow in 1996 when he starred opposite Rachael Stirling, who played Desdemona. Ejiofor made