BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : AFRO-BRITISH " NONSO ANOZIE " IS AN ENGLISH ACTOR WHO WORKED ON STAGE, FILM AND TELEVISION : GOES INTO THE " HALL OF BLACK GENIUS "

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Nonso Anozie

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Nonso Anozie
Anozie at the production of The Children's Monologues, November 2010
Born	28 May 1979 (age 36) Camden, London, England
Occupation	Actor

Nonso Anozie (born 28 May 1979) is an English actor who has worked on stage, film, and television.

Life and career

Anozie was born in Camden, London, England, of Nigerian descent.^[1][2] In the summer of 2002 he played the title role in William Shakespeare's King Lear, and won the Ian Charleson Award in 2004 for his performance in Othello.

Anozie was hired in 2006 to provide the voice for the armoured bear Iorek Byrnison in the film adaptation of Philip Pullman'sNorthern Lights.^[3] Anozie was replaced by Ian McKellen two months before the film was set to be released.^[4] The film's director,Chris Weitz, told Empire: "It was a studio decision ... You can understand why you would cast Ian McKellen for anything. But letting go of Nonso was one of the most painful experiences on this movie for me. I need to say about Nonso that he is one of the most promising and soulful young actors I have encountered in England and I've worked here for quite a bit now and he's actually in the next Mike Leigh [film] ... But it was, uh, that was kind of a dark day for me. I kinda wanna go out of my way to point out how much I love Nonso's work. And that's that."^[5]

Anozie played small roles as Think Tank in Guy Ritchie's film RocknRolla and Frank Mace in Joe Wright's Atonement. He played the lead in Cass a 2008 British crime drama film recreating the life of Cass Pennant. In 2009, he appeared in the supporting cast of the BBC TV three-part 2003 Iraq War drama, Occupation, where he played a US Marineturned private military contractor. In 2011, he played Artus, a Zamoran pirate and close friend of Conan, in Conan the Barbarian. That year, he was also cast to play the role of Xaro Xhoan Daxos in the HBO series Game of Thrones and was cast as Jackson Burke in The Grey.^[6] He also plays the role of Samson in the History Channel's television miniseries The Bible. In 2013, Anozie appeared in the film Ender's Game as Sergeant Dap,^[7] and from 2013 to 2014 he played the role of Renfield on the NBC series Dracula.^[8]

In November 2014, Anozie was cast in the CBS summer drama Zoo, based on the novel by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge.^[9] Zoo premiered on June 30, 2015.

Anozie's radio work includes the role of Joe in the 2011 BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial production of Edna Ferber's Show Boat.

Filmography

Films

• The Last Legion (2007), Batiatus
• Atonement (2007), Frank Mace
• Happy-Go-Lucky (2008), Ezra
• Cass (2008), Cass Pennant
• RocknRolla (2008), Tank
• Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang (2010), Sergeant Jeffreys
• Brighton Rock (2010), Dallow
• I Am Slave (2010)
• Conan the Barbarian (2011), Artus
• The Grey (2011), Jackson Burke
• Ender's Game (2013), Sergeant Dap
• Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014), Embee
• Get Santa (2014), Knuckles
• Cinderella (2015), Captain
• Pan (2015), Bishop

Video Games

• Brink (2011) Captain Clinton Mokoena

Television

• Occupation (2009), Erik Lester
• Game of Thrones (2012), Xaro Xhoan Daxos
• The Bible (2013), Samson
• Dracula (2013–2014), R.M. Renfield
• Zoo (2015), Abraham Kenyatta
• Tut (2015), General Horemheb
• Sense8 (2015)