Daniel Kaluuya
Daniel Kaluuya was born in London to Ugandan parents, and he grew up in a council estate in Camden living with his mother. He wrote a play when he was nine years old and soon began taking classes in improvisational acting at the Anna Scher Theatre. He later also became involved in the Hampstead Theatre’s youth program. Kaluuya excelled in Theatre and screen-writing and was particularly praised for his leading performance in Sucker Punch at the Royal Court Theatre in London and he won both the Evening Standard Award and Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Outstanding Newcomer. In 2018, he received the BAFTA Rising Star Award.
His big break came from the Movie Get Out (On the BHM watch list this week). From the magnificent mind of Jordan Peele ‘Get Out’ garnered Kaluuya an Oscar nomination and set him up as a Hollywood One To Watch!
Get Out Review: “Get Out is really a masterwork of Afrofuturism, the artistic and scientific framework for understanding race as a technology across time and space. Writer-director Jordan Peele unabashedly uses classical Afrofuturist imagery in depicting the theft of the Black body … I did not experience Get Out as a horror movie as such, but as the best damn movie I've ever seen about American slavery.” - https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a53515/get-out-jordan-peele-slavery/
This was followed by roles in Ryan Coogler's superhero film Black Panther (2018), Steve McQueen's heist film Widows (2018), and Melina Matsoukas's romantic road crime film Queen & Slim (2019). For his portrayal of Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah (2021), he won the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Critics' Choice Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actor. At age 32, Kaluuya became the seventh-youngest Best Supporting Actor winner of the former. He is the first British actor of African heritage to win an Academy Award.
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