Daniel Kaluuya facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Daniel Kaluuya
Kaluuya in 2017
Born	(1989-02-24) 24 February 1989 (age 36) Camden Town, London, England
Occupation	Actor writer director producer
Years active	2006–present
Awards	Full list

Daniel Kaluuya (born 24 February 1989) is a talented English actor and filmmaker. He works in both movies and plays. He has won many important awards, like an Academy Award, two British Academy Film Awards, and a Golden Globe Award. In 2021, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Kaluuya started acting when he was a teenager. He began in improvisational theatre, where actors make up scenes on the spot. He played Posh Kenneth in the TV show Skins (2007–2009) and even helped write some episodes. He also earned praise for his acting in the play Sucker Punch in 2010. Later, he became well-known for his roles in TV shows like Psychoville (2009–2011), The Fades (2011), and the Black Mirror episode "Fifteen Million Merits" (2011).

In 2017, Kaluuya became a big star in Jordan Peele's horror film Get Out. This role earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. After that, he appeared in many other popular films. These include Ryan Coogler's superhero movie Black Panther (2018) and Steve McQueen's crime drama Widows (2018). He also starred in Peele's horror film Nope (2022) and voiced a character in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023).

For his role as Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah (2021), he won a BAFTA and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He has also started directing, co-directing the drama The Kitchen (2023).

Growing Up and Learning

Daniel Kaluuya was born on 24 February 1989 in London, England. His parents are from Uganda. His mother raised him and his older sister on a council estate in Camden Town, London. His father lived in Malawi, and Daniel didn't meet him until he was 15 years old.

He went to Torriano Primary School and St Aloysius' College, Highgate. For his advanced studies, he took History, Drama, and Biology at Camden School for Girls.

Kaluuya wrote his first play when he was just nine years old. After that, he started performing in improvisational theatre. He began acting as a child at his local Anna Scher Theatre School and WAC Arts.

Acting Journey

Starting Out: Skins and Early TV Roles (2006–2009)

Kaluuya's first acting role was in 2006 in the BBC drama Shoot the Messenger. He then joined the first cast of the popular TV show Skins as Posh Kenneth. He also helped write some of the episodes for the first two seasons. He was even the main writer for the episodes called "Jal" and "Thomas".

After Skins, Kaluuya appeared as a guest star in many other TV shows. These included Silent Witness, a Doctor Who special called "Planet of the Dead", and Lewis. He also appeared twice in the sketch comedy show That Mitchell and Webb Look. Fans especially liked his character "Parking Pataweyo" in Harry & Paul. In 2009, he became a regular actor in the ITV comedy FM. By the end of 2009, Screen International Magazine named him a "UK Star of Tomorrow." This meant they saw him as a promising new talent.

Becoming a Star: Stage, Get Out, and Black Panther (2010–2018)

In 2010, Kaluuya played the main character in Roy Williams' play Sucker Punch at the Royal Court Theatre in London. He received great reviews for his performance. He won both the Evening Standard Award and the Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Outstanding Newcomer. From 2009 to 2011, he also played Michael "Tea Leaf" Fry in the BBC comedy Psychoville.

Daniel Kaluuya in 2018

Between 2011 and 2013, Kaluuya acted in several short films. One important film was Daniel Mulloy's Baby. This film was shown at the Sundance Film Festival. It also won the Best Short Film Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and the British Independent Film Awards. In 2011, he appeared as Agent Tucker in Johnny English Reborn, a sequel to the 2003 film Johnny English. Also in 2011, he played Mac Armstrong in the BBC3 supernatural drama series The Fades. In 2015, he played an FBI Agent in Denis Villeneuve's thriller film Sicario.

Kaluuya played one of the main characters, Bingham "Bing" Madsen, in "Fifteen Million Merits". This was an episode of the TV show Black Mirror. Critics praised his acting in this episode. It first aired in 2011 but became very popular when it was released on Netflix in the United States. His performance in Black Mirror caught the eye of director Jordan Peele. This led Peele to cast him in Get Out, which became Kaluuya's breakthrough role.

Get Out was released on 24 February 2017. Kaluuya's acting in the film received a lot of praise. For example, Steven Gaydos from Variety said Kaluuya's acting was "brilliant." Richard Lawson from Vanity Fair called it a "masterful" performance. For his role, he received many awards and nominations. These included an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. He also received nominations for a BAFTA Award, Critics' Choice Award, Golden Globe Award, and SAG Award. In 2018, he won the BAFTA Rising Star Award.

In December 2016, Kaluuya was cast in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Black Panther. The movie came out on 16 February 2018. Kaluuya also had a big role in the heist film Widows (2018). He then starred in the road trip and crime movie Queen & Slim (2019) with Jodie Turner-Smith. In 2018, he also lent his voice to the BBC and Netflix miniseries Watership Down.

New Projects: Nope, Judas, and The Kitchen (2019–Present)

In October 2019, it was announced that Kaluuya would produce a movie based on the children's TV show Barney & Friends. He is doing this through his new company, 59%. Kaluuya said the Barney film would "surprise audiences." As of 2022, the movie is still being developed.

In 2020, Kaluuya was also set to produce and star in a Netflix movie. It is based on Femi Fadugba's book The Upper World. In 2021, he starred as revolutionary leader Fred Hampton in the movie Judas and the Black Messiah. Critics loved his performance in this film. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actor, Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role. He was the only actor that year to win all five of these major film awards. At 32 years old, Daniel Kaluuya became one of the youngest actors to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

In early 2021, Kaluuya was cast in Jordan Peele's sci-fi horror film Nope. He starred alongside Keke Palmer and Steven Yeun. The movie was released on 22 July 2022 and received good reviews. Because of his busy schedule with Nope, Kaluuya could not return as W'Kabi in the Black Panther sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. In April 2021, Kaluuya hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live. He was also included in Time magazine's 2021 list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Daniel Kaluuya and Nope co-star, actress Keke Palmer in 2022.

In March 2022, it was announced that Kaluuya was writing a dystopian drama for Netflix. The film is called The Kitchen, and Kibwe Tavares is directing it. Kaluuya also co-directed and produced the film. It stars Kane Robinson and Jedaiah Bannerman. The British Film Institute announced that the film would be shown at the 67th BFI London Film Festival in October 2023. The Kitchen was released on Netflix on 19 January 2024.

In May 2022, Kaluuya was announced as the narrator for Amazon Prime's sports show All or Nothing: Arsenal. This show followed the English football team Arsenal during their 2021–22 season. In November 2022, Kaluuya was confirmed to voice Hobart "Hobie" Brown / Spider-Punk in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. In October 2024, a statue of Kaluuya was put up in London to honor his work in Get Out.

About His Life

Daniel Kaluuya lives in West London. He is a big fan of the football club Arsenal F.C.. He even calls Arsenal's rivals, Tottenham Hotspur F.C., the "team who must not be named." In August 2022, Kaluuya narrated All or Nothing: Arsenal, the show about Arsenal's 2021–22 season. He is a Christian and mentioned his faith during his Oscar speech.

Movies and TV Shows

Key

Denotes productions that have not yet been released

Film Roles

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	Shoot the Messenger	Reece
2008	Cass	Young Cass Pennant
2010	Baby	Damon	Short film
2010	Chatroom	Mo
2011	Johnny English Reborn	Agent Colin Tucker
2013	Welcome to the Punch	Juka Ogadowa
	... 2	Black Death
2015	Sicario	Reggie Wayne
2017	Get Out	Chris Washington
2018	Black Panther	W'Kabi
	Widows	Jatemme Manning
2019	Queen & Slim	Ernest "Slim" Hines	Also executive producer
2020	A Christmas Carol	Ghost of Christmas Present (voice)
2021	Judas and the Black Messiah	Fred Hampton
2022	Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.	N/A	Producer
	Nope	Otis Jr. "OJ" Haywood
2023	Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse	Hobart "Hobie" Brown / Spider-Punk (voice)
	The Kitchen	N/A	Co-director, co-writer, and producer
2027	Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse	Hobart "Hobie" Brown / Spider-Punk (voice)	In production

Television Roles

Theatre Roles

Awards and Nominations

Daniel Kaluuya has received many important awards and nominations. He has been nominated for two Academy Awards, three British Academy Film Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. He has also been nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award, four Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Laurence Olivier Award.

See also

• List of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees – Youngest winners for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
• List of actors with two or more Academy Award nominations in acting categories