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Producer · Actor · Director · Writer

1972-09-06 · Hackney, London, England, UK · Male

58 series in the catalog

Sir Idrissa Akuna Elba ( IH-driss; born 6 September 1972) is an English actor, DJ, rapper, and producer. He has received a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for three BAFTA Awards and eight Primetime Emmy Awards. He was named in the Time 100 list of the Most Influential People in the World in 2016. His films have grossed over US$9.8 billion at the global box office, making him one of the top 20 highest-grossing actors. In 2025, Elba was named as the UK's ninth-most influential Black person in the 2026 Powerlist.

Elba studied acting at the National Youth Music Theatre in London. He rose to prominence playing Tim in Family Affairs, and in the United States playing Stringer Bell in the HBO series The Wire (2002–2004), and DCI John Luther in the BBC One series Luther (2010–2019), the latter of which earned him the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film as well as four nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie. He was also Emmy-nominated for his guest role in Showtime comedy-drama series The Big C (2011) and for his leading role in Apple TV+ thriller series Hijack (2023). He is also known for his recurring guest role as Charles Miner in the NBC sitcom The Office (2009).

On film, Elba portrayed a ruthless and charismatic warlord in the Netflix drama Beasts of No Nation (2015) for which he received the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Actor in a Supporting Role as well as nominations for a BAFTA Award and Golden Globe Award. He portrayed Nelson Mandela in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013) for which he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama. He has also acted in American Gangster (2007), Obsessed (2009), Prometheus (2012), Pacific Rim (2013), Star Trek Beyond (2016), Molly's Game (2017), The Dark Tower (2017), Hobbs & Shaw (2019), The Harder They Fall (2021), Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022) and A House of Dynamite (2025).

Elba joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) portraying Heimdall in six films beginning with Thor (2011), as well as the DC Extended Universe playing Bloodsport in The Suicide Squad (2021). He voiced Chief Bogo in Zootopia (2016), Zootopia+ (2022) and Zootopia 2 (2025), Shere Khan in The Jungle Book, Fluke in Finding Dory (both 2016), and Knuckles the Echidna in the Sonic the Hedgehog film series (2022–present), and played Man-At-Arms in Masters of the Universe (2026).

Elba made his directorial debut with Yardie (2018). He also performs as a DJ under the moniker DJ Big Driis or Idris and as an R&B singer. He is a co-owner of the Formula E team, Kiro Race Co.

Early life and education

Idrissa Akuna Elba was born on 6 September 1972 in the London Borough of Hackney, the only child to Winston Elba, a Sierra Leonean 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 and shortened his first name to "Idris" while at school in Canning Town, where he first became involved in acting.

Elba credits The Stage with giving him his first big break. After seeing an advertisement for a play, 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. 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.

Career

1994–2004: Early roles and The Wire

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. In an episode of series 1, he played a central character, 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 afterward. 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. In 1997, he starred in the first two episodes of the second series "Blood, Sweat and Tears" in Silent Witness. After a supporting turn on a 2001 episode of Law & Order, Elba landed a starring role on the HBO drama series The Wire. From 2002 to 2004, Elba portrayed Stringer Bell in the series, perhaps his best-known role in the United States. Elba is also known for playing the character Aaron Smith in the 2003 Jamaican film, One Love.

2005–2019: Luther and stardom

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, 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 appeared on Showtime's The Big C in 2010. At the 69th Golden Globe Awards telecast on 15 January 2012, Elba won Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film for his role on the BBC crime thriller series Luther.

In 2007, Elba signed on to play the lead role of the film Daddy's Little Girls, playing Monty, a blue-collar mechanic who falls in love with an attorney helping him gain custody of his kids, and finds the relationship and his custody hopes threatened by the return of his former wife. He appeared in 28 Weeks Later (2007) and This Christmas (2007), which brought in nearly $50 million (~$72.7 million in 2024) at the box office in 2007. In 2008, he starred in the horror film Prom Night and the Guy Ritchie London gangster film RocknRolla. In 2009, he starred in the horror film The Unborn and in Obsessed, a thriller that had him cast opposite Beyoncé. The latter was a box office success, taking $29 million in its opening weekend. Elba's next film was Legacy (2010), in which he portrayed a black ops soldier who returns to Brooklyn after a failed mission in Eastern Europe, where he has undertaken a journey looking for retribution. He starred in Dark Castle's adaptation of DC/Vertigo's The Losers, under the direction of Sylvain White, in the role of Roque, the second-in-command of a black-ops team out for revenge against a government that did them wrong. Filming took place in Puerto Rico, and the movie was released in April 2010. Elba appeared in the thriller Takers (2010). He played Heimdall in Kenneth Branagh's film Thor (2011), based on the Marvel Comics superhero of the same name.

In August 2010, Elba signed up to portray the title character in a…