Idrissa Akuna Elba OBE (born 6 September 1972 in London, England) is an English television, theatre, and film actor of Ghanaian and Sierra Leonean descent.
A Golden Globe award winner for his role as Luther, he is also famous for having starred as the sophisticated druglord Stringer Bell in The Wire and in several big budget Hollywood films such as Thor, Prometheus, and Pacific Rim. He also reprised his role as Heimdall in the Thor sequels Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok, and also had appearances in Avengers: Age of Ultron and Avengers: Infinity War.
Elba is becoming Disney's go-to guy when they need an intimidating voice. In 2016 alone, they released three animated movies featuring Elba—besides voicing the villain Shere Khan in The Jungle Book (2016), he also voiced Police Chief Bogo in Zootopia and a bullying sea lion in Pixar's Finding Dory. Plus, the MCU is managed by Disney.
As for voice acting outside of Disney, he plays Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022) and is set to play him again in a Paramount+ exclusive spin-off of the Sonic the Hedgehog film universe.
He's also a musician, known as DJ Big Driis/Big Driis the Londoner, as well as kickboxer, starting out quite late in life (at age 44) but still good enough that he won his first (and as of yet only) fight, via KO.
Filmography:
Film
- Bellemaman (1999)
- Sorted Jam (2000)
- Buffalo Soldiers (2001)
- One Love (2003)
- The Gospel (2005)
- Sometimes in April (2005)
- Daddy's Little Girls (2007)
- The Reaping (2007)
- 28 Weeks Later (2007)
- American Gangster (2007)
- This Christmas (2007)
- Prom Night (2008)
- RocknRolla (2008)
- The Human Contract (2008)
- The Unborn (2009)
- Obsessed (2009)
- Takers (2010)
- Legacy (2010)
- The Losers (2010)
- Marvel Cinematic Universe as Heimdall:
- Thor (2011)
- Thor: The Dark World (2013)
- Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
- Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
- Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
- Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
- Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012)
- Prometheus (2012)
- Pacific Rim (2013) as Marshall Stacker Pentecaust
- Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013) as Nelson Mandela
- No Good Deed (2014)
- Beasts of No Nation (2015)
- Zootopia (2016) as Chief Bogo
- Zootopia+ (2022)
- The Jungle Book (2016) as Shere Khan
- Finding Dory (2016) as Rudder
- Star Trek Beyond (2016) as Krall/Captain Balthazar Edison
- Bastille Day (2016)
- The Dark Tower (2017) as the Gunslinger
- Molly's Game (2017) as Charlie Jaffrey
- Hobbs & Shaw (2019) as Brixton Lore
- Cats (2019) as Macavity
- The Suicide Squad (2021) as Robert DuBois/Bloodsport
- The Harder They Fall (2021) as Rufus Buck
- Sonic the Hedgehog (film series) as Knuckles the Echidna:
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022)
- Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024)
- Beast (2022) as Dr. Nate Samuels
- Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022) as the Djinn
- The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (2022) as the Fox
- Extraction 2 (2023) as TBA
Live Action TV
- Family Affairs (1997)
- Ultraviolet (1998)
- Dangerfield (1999)
- London's Burning (2001)
- The Wire (2002-2004)
- The Office (US) (2009)
- Luther (2009-2015, 2019)
- The Big C (2010)
- Guerrilla (2017)
- H/JACK (2023)
- Knuckles (2023)
Video Games
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011)
- Cyberpunk 2077 (Phantom Liberty DLC) (2023)
Provides examples of
- Ability over Appearance: In the MCU, he plays Heimdall, who in the comics is Caucasian and in actual myths is among the palest of the gods. However, Elba's performance was so impressive that most audiences didn't care.
- Similarly, his casting as Roland Deschain in The Dark Tower, who is described in the books as resembling a young Clint Eastwood, raised a few eyebrows at first, but his performance is generally considered one of the stronger aspects of an otherwise mediocre film.
- Baritone of Strength: His deep, authoritative voice is one of his most notable characteristics. He plays it up in some roles but his natural voice more than qualifies on its own.
- Chronically Killed Actor: A number of his roles involve his character dying by the end.
Ironically, his character is one of the very few to survive the entirety of The Suicide Squad. - Scary Black Man: A common and recurring role for him.
