Idris Elba

Idris Elba (birthname: Idrissa Akuna Elba) belongs to the upper tier of actors with Trans-Atlantic appeal, equally renowned in his native U.K. and in the U.S., where he first made an impact in Marvel’s Thor (2011) as Heimdall. He followed up his striking and award-winning turn as Nelson Mandela in the limited series, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom with roles in four blockbusters—Ridley Scott’s Prometheus (2012), Pacific Rim (2013), Thor: The Dark World (2013) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015).

Idris Elba gained further prestige as a fearsome warlord in Cary Joji Fukunaga’s Beasts of No Nation (2015), one of Netflix’s first major original features, which earned him four awards and six nominations. But it was his title role in the hit series, Luther (2010-2011, 2013, 2015, 2019), which finally scored Elba his widest visibility and confirmed his position as a leading man. The successful recording artist diversified his resume with voice work in animated features Zootopia (2016), The Jungle Book (2016), and Finding Dory (2016).

Despite occasional misfires like the Stephen King adaptation of The Dark Tower (2017), Idris Elba has nimbly shifted between MCU megahits like Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Fast & Furious Presents Hobbs & Shaw (2019) and The Suicide Squad (2021) and more artistic ventures such as Molly’s Game (2017) with Jessica Chastain and The Mountain Between Us (2017) with Kate Winslet. 2022 ushers in one of Elba’s biggest profile roles to date, co-starring with Tilda Swinton in George Miller’s supernatural adventure, Three Thousand Years of Longing. In 2018, Elba made his debut as a feature film director with the British urban drama, Yardie.