John Boyega

John Adedayo Bamidele Adegboyega (born 17 March 1992), known professionally as John Boyega, is a British-Nigerian actor and producer. He first rose to prominence in his native Britain for his role as Moses in the sci-fi comedy film Attack the Block (2011), and his international breakthrough came with his role as Finn in the Star Wars sequel trilogy films The Force Awakens (2015), The Last Jedi (2017), and The Rise of Skywalker (2019).

His other credits include the drama film Imperial Dreams (2014), the historical drama film Detroit (2017), the science fiction film Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018), and four episodes of the television series 24: Live Another Day. He received the BAFTA Rising Star Award in 2016, and was awarded the Trophée Chopard at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. Boyega was cited as one of the Top 100 most influential Africans by New African magazine in 2020.

Boyega portrayed Leroy Logan in the 3rd episode of Steve McQueen’s anthology series Small Axe (2020), for his performance he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film and the Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Movie/Miniseries.

Early life

John Adedayo Bamidele Adegboyega was born on 17 March 1992 in the Peckham district of London, to Abigail (née Aboderin), who works with disabled people, and Samson Adegboyega, a Pentecostal minister. He has two older sisters. His parents are both of Nigerian descent. His first acting role was as a leopard in a play while at Oliver Goldsmith Primary School. While acting in another play there at age nine, he was noticed by Teresa Early, the artistic director of Theatre Peckham, a learning theatre for young people who live in south London. He spent his time there outside school hours from ages nine to 14. His father wanted Boyega to become a minister like himself, but was nonetheless supportive of his theatrical interests. Boyega and his sister Grace were among the last people to see Damilola Taylor alive: they were friends and the Boyegas helped watch him.

In 2003, Boyega started his secondary education at Westminster City School, where he took part in various school productions. From 2008 to 2010, he attended South Thames College at the college’s Wandsworth campus to study for a National Diploma in Performing Arts. His activities at the college included playing the title role in the college’s production of Othello. He enrolled at the University of Greenwich to study for a BA in film studies and media writing, but dropped out to focus on acting. He trained with the Identity School of Acting in London, and became a patron of its Los Angeles branch when it opened in 2018.

Career

Boyega trained at the Identity School of Acting in Hackney, and appeared in 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 Jamal, a drug dealer who finds some guns and tries to sell them.

Boyega was chosen by Fionnuala Halligan of Screen International as one of the “UK Stars of Tomorrow 2011” and appeared alongside 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 major character in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It was later revealed Boyega would play Finn, a stormtrooper for the First Order, who leaves the military power after witnessing their cruelty in his first combat mission before joining the fight against them. The film was released on 18 December 2015. Both the film and Boyega’s performance received acclaim from critics and audiences alike.

In 2017, Boyega starred in Detroit, Kathryn Bigelow’s film about the 1967 Detroit riots. The same year, he reprised his role as Finn in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

In January 2016, Boyega formed his own production company, Upperroom Entertainment Limited. His company co-produced Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018), the sequel to the 2013 movie Pacific Rim, alongside Legendary Entertainment. Boyega also starred in the lead role of the film, Jake Pentecost. In 2019 John teased his new collaboration with Writer/Director Sebastian Thiel. The two are in development of a series based on their childhood experiences, which Boyega will be producing 

In November 2018 it was announced that Boyega would be starring alongside Letitia Wright in a novel adaption of Hold Back the Stars. Boyega has also been cast in Steve McQueen’s miniseries Small Axe.

In 2018, Boyega subsequently reprised his role as Finn in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, released in 2019. In an interview on Good Morning America, Boyega revealed that he had accidentally left his script in a hotel room during filming. The script subsequently surfaced on eBay but was bought by a Lucasfilm employee to prevent it from being leaked.

In response to a tweet suggesting he should play the DC Comics character Static in a live-action role, Boyega suggested that he would be too old to star in the role and that he would be interested in seeing a newcomer cast as the character, while himself expressing interest in playing the DC character of Red Hood.

In the 2020 and 2021 editions of the Powerlist, Boyega was listed in the Top 100 of the most influential people in the UK of African/African-Caribbean descent. More recently, his production company UpperRoom set a first look deal with VIS Kids.

Activism and advocacy

Boyega has shown solidarity with George Floyd, Sandra Bland, Trayvon Martin, and Stephen Lawrence during a speech at a Black Lives Matter rally in Hyde Park, London. His action was praised by a number of celebrities, Lucasfilm also reiterated their support for Boyega and the Black Lives Matter movement.

In a 2020 interview with British GQ, Boyega openly criticised Disney over the sidelining of his character Finn in the Star Wars sequel trilogy by commenting, “hat I would say to Disney is do not bring out a black character, market them to be much more important in the franchise than they are and then have them pushed to the side. It’s not good. I’ll say it straight up.” Boyega is also a teetotaller.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Director	Notes
2011	Attack the Block	Moses	Joe Cornish
	Junkhearts	Jamal	Tinge Krishnan
2013	Half of a Yellow Sun	Ugwu	Biyi Bandele
2014	Imperial Dreams	Bambi	Malik Vitthal
2015	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	FN-2187 / Finn	J. J. Abrams
2017	The Circle	Ty	James Ponsoldt
	Detroit	Melvin Dismukes	Kathryn Bigelow
	Star Wars: The Last Jedi	Finn	Rian Johnson
2018	Pacific Rim: Uprising	Jake Pentecost	Steven S. DeKnight	Also producer
2019	Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker	Finn	J.J. Abrams
2021	Naked Singularity	Casi	Chase Palmer
TBA	They Cloned Tyrone	Fontaine	Juel Taylor	Post-production
TBA	Rebel Ridge		Jeremy Saulnier	Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2011	Da Brick	Donnie	Pilot
	Becoming Human	Danny Curtis	4 episodes
	Law & Order: UK	Jamal Clarkson	Episode: “Survivor’s Guilt”
2012	My Murder	Shakilus Townsend	Television film
2013	The Whale	William Bond
2014	24: Live Another Day	Chris Tanner	4 episodes
2015	Major Lazer	Blkmrkt	Voice; 10 episodes
	Saturday Night Live	Himself	Segment: “Star Wars Auditions”
2016	Tinkershrimp & Dutch	Dutch	Voice; 5 episodes
2017–18	Star Wars Forces of Destiny	Finn	Voice; 2 episodes
2018	Watership Down	Bigwig	Voice; 4 episodes
2019	Serengeti	Narrator	Voice; 5 episodes
2020	Small Axe	Leroy Logan	Episode: “Red, White and Blue”

Stage

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2009	Six Parties	Ben	National Theatre, London
	Category B	Reece	Kiln Theatre, London
	Seize the Day	Sam
2009	Detaining Justice	Guard / Passer-by
2017	Woyzeck	Woyzeck	The Old Vic, London

Voice work

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2015	Disney Infinity 3.0	Finn	Voice
2016	Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens	Finn	Voice
2017	Star Wars Battlefront II	Finn	Voice

Theme park attractions

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2015	Star Tours – The Adventures Continue	Finn	Scene added for seasonal Season of the Force promotion
2019	Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance		Disney’s Hollywood Studios
2020			Disneyland

Awards and recognition

Year	Award	Category	Project	Result	Ref
2011	Black Reel Award	Best Actor	Attack the Block	Won
		Best Breakthrough Performance		Nominated
		Best Ensemble		Nominated
	British Independent Film Awards	Most Promising Newcomer		Nominated
	Empire Award	Best Male Newcomer		Nominated
	Evening Standard British Film Awards	Most Promising Newcomer		Nominated
	London Film Critics’ Circle	Young British Performer of the Year		Nominated
2015	British Academy Film Award	Rising Star Award	Himself	Won
2015	Empire Award	Best Male Newcomer	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	Won
	Georgia Film Critics Association	Best Ensemble		Nominated
	MTV Movie Awards	Best Breakthrough Performance		Nominated
		Best Action Performance		Nominated
		Best Ensemble		Nominated
	Kids’ Choice Awards	Favorite Movie Actor		Nominated
	Saturn Award	Best Actor		Nominated
2017	Empire Award	Best Actor	Star Wars: The Last Jedi	Nominated
	Teen Choice Award	Best Movie Actor – Sci-Fi/Fantasy		Nominated
2020	Critics’ Choice Television Award	Best Actor in a Limited Series or TV Movie	Small Axe	Won
	Golden Globe Awards	Best Supporting Actor – Television		Won
	London Film Critics’ Circle	British/Irish Actor of the Year		Pending
	Satellite Awards	Best Actor in a Miniseries or TV Film		Nominated