22/08/2025
Happy 58th birthday Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje 🎂 🥳 🎉
Born and raised in London, England, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje began to Nigerian parents of Yoruba origin, who were students in the UK. When he was six weeks old, his biological parents gave him up to a white working-class family in Tilbury, Essex. His foster parents had at least ten African children, including Akinnuoye-Agbaje's two sisters, living in their house at certain points. When he was eight years old, his biological parents brought him back to Nigeria but, as he was unable to speak the Yoruba language and unable to assimilate, he was returned to Tilbury shortly thereafter.
The brief exposure to Nigeria left him struggling to reconcile his heritage with the distinctly British culture and environment he was raised in. As a young boy, he was subject to continual racial abuse in the white neighbourhood he grew up. After enduring repeated physical attacks by local skinheads, he earned their respect by standing up to them and eventually aligned forces with them. He ultimately ended up in a boarding school in Surrey at the age of 16. his career as a model in Milan. He graduated with a masters degree in Law from London's prestigious Kings College to earn a Master’s in Law., before moving to Los Angeles to make the transition to acting. Fluent in several languages, including English, Italian, Yoruba and Swahili.
Mr Akinnuoye-Agbaje's modelling career led him to Hollywood, where he began his acting career with a 1995 role in Congo.His best-known acting roles have been as the imposing convict Simon Adebisi in the 1990s HBO prison series Oz and as Mr. Eko on ABC's survivor drama Lost. Film roles include The Bourne Identity, in which he played a deposed African dictator, Hitu the police officer in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, Lock-Nah in The Mummy Returns, and Heavy Duty in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. He was also featured in the video for singer-songwriter Grayson Hugh's hit "Talk It Over", which was in heavy rotation in 1989 on MTV and VH-1. Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s numerous other memorable holywoodncredits include Lost, Lock-Nah in The Mummy Returns, Nykwana Wombosi in The Bourne Identity, Heavy Duty in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Kurse in Thor: The Dark World, Killer , Croc in Su***de Squad, Get rich or die trying , The thing , Malko in the fifth season of the HBO series Game of Thrones, Pompeii, Dave Duerson in the NFL biopic drama Concussion, and Ogunwe in His Dark Materials.
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