David Oyelowo

David Oyelowo (pronounced – « oh-yellow-oh »), is a classically trained stage actor who has quickly become one of Hollywood’s most sought-after talents. He graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), and received the « Scholarship for Excellence » from Nicholas Hytner in 1998.

David starred as Martin Luther King Jr. in Paramount’s drama Selma (2014). Directed by Ava DuVernay and produced by Oprah Winfrey and Brad Pitt’s Plan B, the film follows Dr. King’s struggle to secure voting rights for black people culminating in the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama and President Lyndon Johnson’s signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Oyelowo received Golden Globe Award, Film Independent Spirit Award nominations and won the NAACP Image Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Dr. King and the film received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. David was also recently seen in Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi adventure Interstellar (2014), J.C. Chandor’s crime drama A Most Violent Year (2014), and Simon Brand’s thriller Default (2014).

David recently wrapped production on Paramount’s Captive (2015), a true-life crime thriller about a drug-addicted single mother (Kate Mara) who finds herself taken hostage in her apartment by an escaped convict (Oyelowo) after he murders the judge overseeing his trial, and the independent drama, Five Nights in Maine (2015). He serves as producer on both films as well. David also starred in Nina (2016), a biographical drama focused on the late singer, Nina Simone (played by Zoe Saldana) and her relationship with her manager, Clifton Henderson (Oyelowo) and Nightingale (2013), a psychological drama in which David plays the solitary character, Peter Snowden, an Iraq War veteran who suffers a mental breakdown, which premiered on HBO on May 29th. His next project is Queen of Katwe (2016) opposite Lupita Nyong’o.