Carmen Ejogo

Carmen Ejogo is a British actress and singer who proved to be a force to be reckoned with in film and television both in the UK and across the pond, often playing strong women who didn't take grief from their male counterparts, but still somehow remained vulnerable and down to Earth. Born on October 22, 1973 in the Kensington neighborhood of London, England, Ejogo was the eldest child and only daughter of a Scottish mother, Elizabeth Douglas (whom Ejogo once said was "a bit of a hippie") and a Nigerian father, Charles Ejogo. Her younger brother, Charles Jr., was born in 1976. As a child, Ejogo attended the Oratory Roman Catholic Primary School and Glendower Preparatory School. At the age of 13, Ejogo made her film debut in the new wave musical "Absolute Beginners" (1986), starring David Bowie. She went on to study performance at Godolphin and Latymer School. At the age of 23, Ejogo made her TV debut, co-starring in the four-part dystopian miniseries "Cold Lazarus" (Channel 4/BBC One, 1996). She contributed vocals to the song "Slowly" by trip-hop artist Tricky, and before long they became a couple. Ejogo and Tricky were married in 1998, but the marriage was over in a matter of months. Leaving her failed marriage behind, Ejogo next put her vocal talents to use in Kenneth Branaugh's Shakespearian adaptation "Loves Labour's Lost" (2000), before playing Coretta Scott King, civil rights activist and wife of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in the biopic "Boycott" (2001). While filming, she and the film's MLK, Jeffrey Wright, fell in love in real life, and were married in 2000, eventually giving birth to two kids. She next starred alongside Martin Lawrence and Danny DeVito in the crime comedy "What's the Worst That Could Happen?" (2001), before becoming a regular on the crime drama "Kidnapped" (NBC, 2006-2007). After that show ended, she took a part in Sam Mendes' romantic dramedy "Away We Go" (2009), before playing Fay Carson on the comedic drama "CHAOS" (CBS, 2011), and then starring on the short-lived conspiracy thriller "Zero Hour" (ABC, 2013). For her return to the big screen, Ejogo once again signed on to play Coretta Scott King, this time to David Oyelowo's MLK, in Ava DuVernay's acclaimed drama "Selma" (2014), and followed that up with another real life role: Jane, paramour to heroin-addled jazz great Chet Baker (Ethan Hawke) in "Born to Be Blue" (2015). She was next invited to join the Harry Potter universe, playing Seraphina Picquery, president of the wizards, in the prequel "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" (2016). 2017 proved to be Ejogo's biggest year yet, as she starred in three big projects: Trey Edward Shults' post-apocalyptic horror "It Comes at Night" (2017), Ridley Scott's return to the land of xenomorphs, "Alien: Covenant" (2017), and Dan Gilroy's legal drama "Roman J. Israel, Esq." (2017), starring a gloriously afro'd Denzel Washington in the titular role. After reprising the role of Seraphina Picquery in "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald" (2018), Ejogo could most recently be seen on the third installment of "True Detective" (HBO, 2014-), in which she played Amelia Reardon, a school teacher and wife to a cop (Mahershala Ali) who is haunted by an unsolved murder/kidnapping, and later writes a best-selling true crime novel about the case.