John Boyega

John Boyega (birthname: John Adedayo Bamidele Adegboyega) is a British actor who has made a strong impact on and off screen, most visibly in his recurring role as Finn aka FN-2187 in three Star Wars movies and a Star Wars spinoff TV series. Boyega has deployed his fame to be one of the strongest advocates in Hollywood for Black Lives Matter in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd. Fresh out of university, Boyega made an immediate impression as Moses in Joe Cornish’s crackerjack alien invasion thriller, Attack the Block (2011).

Boyega, the child of Nigerian parents, had a supporting role in the Nigerian-U.K. production of Biyi Bandele’s adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun (2013), with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandiwe Newton. Boyega’s first starring role was in Malik Vitthal’s American indie feature which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and appeared on Netflix, Imperial Dreams (2014), with Keke Palmer and Glenn Plummer.

Starting in 2015, John Boyega’s movies were significantly higher-profile, starting with his big break as Finn in J.J. Abrams’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)—and being the first Black actor with a major role in a Star Wars movie. Boyega proceeded to co-star with Tom Hanks and Karen Gillan in James Ponsoldt’s futurist drama, The Circle (2017), followed by a striking, starring performance in Kathryn Bigelow’s blistering drama, Detroit (2017), with Algee Smith, Will Poulter, Jacob Latimore, and Jason Mitchell. Returning to the Star Wars universe, John Boyega portrayed Finn under Rian Johnson’s direction in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, with Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, Mark Hammill, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, and Andy Serkis.

It was a different, relatively upstart sci-fi franchise, with Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018), where Boyega—increasingly a fan favorite with the Comic-Con crowd–landed next, topping a cast (as well as producing) including Scott Eastwood, Jing Tian, Rinko Kikuchi, and Adria Arjona. Sadly, for Pacific Rim fans, Uprising would mark the end of the line for the franchise, having delivered an underperforming global gross of $290 million.

John Boyega’s third Star Wars film and his second with director J.J. Abrams was Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), with new cast members Billy Dee Williams, Keri Russell, and Richard E. Grant. Boyega took on a less conventional role as a samurai-wielding New York public defender in Chase Palmer’s Naked Singularity (2021), with Olivia Cooke, Bill Skarsgård, and Tim Blake Nelson. Boyega starred in Abi Damaris Corbin’s true-crime thriller recalling Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Breaking (originally titled 892), which premiered under the original title at the Sundance Film Festival and featured the late Michael Kenneth Williams.

The epic-scaled historical saga, The Woman King (2022), starring Viola Davis and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, was Boyega’s second African-set movie. Boyega’s third 2022 feature is debuting writer-director Juel Taylor’s sci-fi comedy, They Cloned Tyrone, with Jamie Foxx and Teyonah Parris. Boyega is set to star in writer-director Gavin Hood’s political drama, The Test (date to be announced), with Payman Maadi. Returning to his movie roots, Boyega is slated to star in Joe Cornish’s sequel, Attack the Block 2 (date to be announced).