David Oyelowo
David Oyelowo
David Oyetokunbo Oyelowo, OBE is a African actor and producer. He has played supporting roles in the films Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Middle of Nowhere, Lincoln, and garnered praise for portraying Louis Gaines in The Butler. On television, he played MI5 officer Danny Hunter in the British series Spooks, and as of 2014, provides the voice of Imperial Security Bureau Agent Kallus on the animated series Star Wars Rebels. In 2014, Oyelowo played Martin Luther King, Jr...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionTV Actor
Date of Birth1 April 1976
CityOxford, England
Whether we like to admit it or not, as artists, we do project our own worldview on to what we do.
As you know, Sunday at 11 o'clock is the most segregated hour in America. You have black churches; you have white churches; you have Hispanic churches. It's not really reflective of the world we live in, by and large, in America.
I love tennis, love it!
My parents are very hard working people who did everything they could for their children. I have two brothers and they worked dog hard to give us an education and provide us with the most comfortable life possible. My dad provided for his family daily. So, yes, that is definitely in my DNA.
I truly believe that one of the things that has been lacking in the USA is a spirit of repentance about the injustices of slavery and the injustices of segregation and racism generally.
I know I had my equivalents in Adrian Lester and Lenny James when I was at drama school. I remember David Harewood doing 'Othello' at the National, and Adrian Lester having done Cheek by Jowl's famous 'As You Like It and Company' at the Donmar. Not necessarily performances I saw, but just the fact they happened was massively encouraging.
I consider myself a human being, a Christian, a father, a husband, so many things, before being a black person.
I don't have a tailor, but I do love clothes.
I truly believe that we cannot come to a place of reconciliation until there is individual repentance and corporate repentance.
I like to think of myself as a physical actor.
One of the things the BBC does better than anyone is period drama.
For me, I'm always looking for opportunities to work with people who are better than me, who are more experienced than me, people from whom I can learn. And who could I learn more from than someone with an unprecedented movie star career that has spanned over thirty years whose name is Tom Cruise?
I know that there is still a lot of bitterness and anger, and arguably justifiably so, when you think about how brutal slavery was and what its brutal legacy still is.
I admire many actors, though I don't think there's anyone whose career I would want to mirror sort of by the beats. What I'm really looking to do is constantly defy expectations. I'm very curious to see if you can actually have a character actor and a movie star's career combined.