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John Boyega
John Boyega at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con International.
Born	(1992-03-16) 16 March 1992 (age 32) Peckham, London, England
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2011–present

John Boyega (born 17 March 1992) is a British actor, best known for playing Moses in his 2011 film debut Attack the Block. Boyega will play Finn in the upcoming 2015 film Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Early life

Boyega was born in Peckham, London, to Nigerian parents. His first role was that of a leopard in a play at his primary school at the age of five. Boyega went to church with his family every day. His father, who was a preacher, wanted Boyega to follow in his footsteps and become a preacher. He was noticed by the Director of Theatre, Teresa Earls, who saw him act in a primary school play and invited him to join the theatre school for talented children between the ages 9 and 14 after obtaining financial assistance from a hardship fund. He attended Westminster City School as a teenager. He later took part in various school productions and attended classes at Theatre Peckham. He was a performing arts student at South Thames College in Wandsworth and was active in theatre productions there, including the lead in Othello in 2010.

Career

Boyega trained at the Identity School of Acting in Hackney, and appeared in the plays Six Parties at the National Theatre and Category B at the Tricycle Theatre prior to being offered a role in the 2011 film Attack the Block. In September 2011, HBO announced that Boyega had been cast in the boxing drama pilot Da Brick, loosely based on Mike Tyson's life. Boyega was expected to play Donnie, who is released from a juvenile detention centre on his 18th birthday and begins to examine what it means to be a man. The pilot was written by John Ridley, but was not picked up by HBO. Also in 2011, he acted in the film Junkhearts in which he portrayed a drug dealer who found some guns and tried to sell them.

Boyega was chosen by Fionnuala Halligan of Screen International, as one of the "UK Stars of Tomorrow 2011" and appeared alongside only two other actors on the front cover of that magazine in its July 2011 edition.

In March 2012, Boyega was cast in the film adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's book Half of a Yellow Sun.

On 29 April 2014, it was confirmed that Boyega had been cast as a lead character in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Boyega has stated in an interview that he is a fan of Marvel Comics, and that he had hoped to play the Marvel character Black Panther.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Theme park attractions

References

1. Lamont, Tom (8 May 2011). "Meet the new kids on the block". The Observer. Retrieved 24 June 2012.
2. McCorkell, Andrew (1 May 2011). "'War of the Worlds' meets 'Skins' on London movie set". The Independent. London: INM. ISSN 0951-9467. OCLC 185201487. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
3. Itzkoff, Dave (22 July 2011). "John Boyega in Joe Cornish's 'Attack the Block'". The New York Times. New York: NYTC. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
4. "The Attack of John Boyega". Interview. 2011. Retrieved 24 June 2012.
5. "Star Wars: Five things you didn't know about John Boyega". The Daily Telegraph. 25 April 2015. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
6. Turner, Camilla (24 April 2015). "Star Wars: John Boyega, the boy from Peckham who stormed Hollywood". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
7. "Hall of Fame". identitydramaschool.com. 2012. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
8. "Attack the Block feature item". dvd365.net. 2012. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
9. Yamato, Jen (1 August 2011). "Attack the Block's John Boyega on Going 'From Hoodie to Hero,' and Taking Hollywood by Storm". Movieline. Retrieved 24 June 2012.
10. Wightman, Catriona (1 September 2011). "John Boyega to star in Mike Tyson, Spike Lee HBO pilot 'Da Brick' – US TV News". Digital Spy. Retrieved 24 June 2012.
11. Jeffery, Morgan (14 March 2012). "'Da Brick': HBO passes on Mike Tyson boxing drama – US TV News". Digital Spy. Retrieved 24 June 2012.
12. "Stars of Tomorrow 2011". Screen Daily. 30 June 2011. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
13. Pearson, Ben (29 March 2012). "Attack the Block star John Boyega joins Half of a Yellow Sun". Filmonic. Retrieved 24 June 2012.
14. "Star Wars: Episode VII Cast Announced". StarWars.com. 29 April 2014. Retrieved 29 April 2014.
15. "Get to know 'Star Wars' star John Boyega". CNN. Breeanna Hare, CNN. 28 November 2014. Retrieved 24 December 2014.

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External links

• John Boyega at IMDb

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