Happy 33rd Birthday, Daniel Kaluuya! Celebrate with His Career in Photos (original) (raw)

Skins as Posh Kenneth

Channel 4

Daniel Kaluuya, 33, began his acting training at the Anna Scher Theatre in London and got his first big break on the classic teen TV drama Skins in 2007. While he played a minor role, he also contributed to the show also as a writer.

The series starred several other young actors who grew to become standout performers in Hollywood, including Dev Patel, Nicholas Hoult and Jack O'Connell.

Psychoville as Tealeaf

BBC

The actor's next project was in the role of Michael Fry, a.k.a. Tealeaf, in the 2009 psychological thriller Psychoville. The young star had a supporting part but nonetheless shined while acting alongside heavyweights like Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton.

Johnny English Reborn as Agent Tucker

Future Films/Kobal/Shutterstock

From 2010 to 2012, Kaluuya appeared on the British sketch comedy show Ruddy Hell! It's Harry and Paul, starring Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse, as Parking Pataweyo. Then in 2011, the star sprung into action as Agent Colin Tucker in the action-comedy flick Johnny English Reborn (right), starring Rowan Atkinson.

The Fades as Mac

Dean Rogers/© BBC/Courtesy: Everett Collection

The same year, Kaluuya played Mac in the short-lived supernatural drama alongside Iain De Caestecker and Game of Thrones star Natalie Dormer.

Black Mirror as Bingham Madsen

CHANNEL 4/ZEPPOTRON/Album

Kaluuya was able to show off his brilliant acting prowess during the series' iconic episode "15 Million Merits" in 2011. He played Bing, a citizen of a dystopian world in which people must ride bikes to power up their society and in return, they earn merits that are used as a form of currency. His rich and dynamic performance blew audiences away and made him a sought-after star.

Sicario as Reggie Wayne

Richard Jr Foreman/Black Label Media/Thunder Road/Kobal/Shutterstock

The British actor played a rookie FBI agent alongside partner Kate, played by Emily Blunt, in the 2015 action film. Although a supporting character, Kaluuya still made his presence known throughout the film while delivering the perfect American accent.

Get Out as Chris Washington

Daniel Kaluuya in Get Out (2017). Universal Pictures/courtesy Everett

Jordan Peele cast Kaluuya in his biggest film role yet as Chris Washington in the 2017 horror-thriller Get Out, earning the star well-deserved recognition including an Oscar nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role and a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture. The film went on to make more than $200 million at the worldwide box offices, according to Deadline, and made Kaluuya a household name in the U.S.

Black Panther as W'Kabi

In 2018, Kaluuya landed a spot in the Marvel Universe in a film that would become a cultural phenomenon. He played W'Kabi, best friend to T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) in the Oscar-winning Black Panther, which grossed more than $1 billion worldwide. He'll appear in this year's sequel, as well.

Queen & Slim as Slim

Queen and Slim . Andre D. Wagner/Universal Pictures

Kaluuya was first to be cast in Lena Waithe and Melina Matsoukas' first feature film, which earned four nominations at the 2020 NAACP Image Awards. The 2019 crime-romance followed Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith, who meet for a first date that goes off the rails when a police officer decides to pull them over. The powerful tale dug into the Black American experience and unfolded as a daring love story between the two leads.

Judas and the Black Messiah as Fred Hampton

Warner Bros. Pictures

In arguably his finest performance yet, the star earned a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award and an Oscar for his role as Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton. Judas and the Black Messiah follows the events leading up to Hampton's death in a deadly raid by the FBI.

Kaluuya explained to The Washington Post that he accepted the role to "serve Chairman Fred, to serve the Black Panther Party."

"He's been silenced, and been erased and been assassinated, physically and culturally," he said. "This is an opportunity to put him in his rightful position."