BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : AFRO-BRITISH " JOHN BOYEGA " IS A BRITISH ACTOR, BEST KNOWN FOR PLAYING MOSES IN HIS 2011 FILM DEBUT ATTACK THE BLOCK : GOES INTO THE " HALL OF BLACK GENIUS "

            BLACK   SOCIAL   HISTORY                                                                                                                        

John Boyega

John Boyega
John Boyega at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con International.
Born	17 March 1992 (age 23) Peckham, London, England
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2011–present
Height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)[1]
Weight	161 lb (73 kg)[2]

John Boyega (born 17 March 1992) is a British actor, best known for playing Moses in his 2011 film debut Attack the Block.^[3]Boyega will play Finn in the upcoming 2015 film Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Early life

John Boyega (2nd from the left), together with Josh Wiggins, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Sharon Swart (from the left to the right)

Boyega was born in Peckham, London,^[4] to Nigerian parents.^[5] His first role was that of a leopard in a play at his primary school at the age of five.^[6] 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,^[7] and appeared in the plays Six Parties at the National Theatre andCategory B at the Tricycle Theatre prior to being offered a role in the 2011 film Attack the Block.^[8][9] In September 2011, HBOannounced 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,^[10] but was not picked up by HBO.^[11] 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.^[12]

In March 2012, Boyega was cast in the film adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's book Half of a Yellow Sun.^[13]

On 29 April 2014, it was confirmed that Boyega had been cast as a lead character in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.^[14]

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.^[15]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2011	Attack the Block	Moses	Black Reel Award for Best Actor Nominated – Black Reel Award for Best Breakthrough Performance Nominated – Black Reel Award for Best Ensemble Nominated – British Independent Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer Nominated – Empire Award for Best Male Newcomer Nominated – Evening Standard British Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer Nominated – London Film Critics' Circle Award for Young British Performer of the Year
2011	Junkhearts	Jamal
2012	My Murder	Shakilus Townsend	Television film
2013	Half of a Yellow Sun	Ugwu
2013	The Whale	William Bond	Television film
2014	Imperial Dreams	Bambi
2015	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	Finn	Post-production; lead role
2016	The Circle	Ty	Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2011	Da Brick	Donnie	Pilot
2011	Becoming Human	Danny Curtis	4 episodes
2011	Law & Order: UK	Jamal Clarkson	Episode: "Survivor's Guilt"
2014	24: Live Another Day	Chris Tanner	4 episodes
2015	Major Lazer	Blkmrkt (voice)	Supporting role