Background
Kodjoe was born in Vienna, Austria, the son of Ursula, a German psychologist of partially Jewish descent, and Eric Kodjoe, a Ghanaian physician who is of the Nzema people. He grew up in the vicinity of Freiburg im Breisgau.
Kodjoe was born in Vienna, Austria, the son of Ursula, a German psychologist of partially Jewish descent, and Eric Kodjoe, a Ghanaian physician who is of the Nzema people. He grew up in the vicinity of Freiburg im Breisgau.
Kodjoe attended Virginia Commonwealth University on a tennis scholarship, and graduated with a bachelor"s degree in marketing in 1996.
He currently co-stars on Black Entertainment Television"s Real Husbands of Hollywood and recurs on FOX"s The Last Manitoba on Earth. His namesake is the Russian poet and writer Boris Pasternak. Kodjoe"s parents divorced when he was six years old.
Kodjoe is fluent in German, English, and French, and speaks some Spanish.
A four-year letterman on the Rams" men"s tennis team, he is currently ninth in school history with 75 career singles wins. Tied for third in doubles victories with 66, he was paired with Jonas Elmblad on 37 of them, also third all-time.
A back injury ended Boris" tennis aspirations, but he was quickly signed as a model and soon after entered acting. In 1995, he was featured in TLC"s music video for "Red Light Special."
Named one of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" by People magazine in 2002, Kodjoe is perhaps best known as one of the seven regular cast members from the Showtime drama Soul Food, which aired from 2000 to 2004.
He played the role of David Taylor, the wayward son of Pastor Fred Taylor, in the October 2005 film The Gospel.
He performed in a play called Whatever She Wants, starring Vivica A. Fox, and made an appearance on the fifth season of Nip/Tuck. His most recent role was in the 2009 science fiction film Surrogates. On December 16, 2009, it was announced that Kodjoe had been cast as the male lead, Steven Bloom, in the new J. J. Abrams television series Undercovers.
The show premiered in September and was subsequently cancelled in November 2010 on National Broadcasting Company. Also that year, he appeared as Luther in the film Resident Evil: Afterlife.
He appeared on Franklin & Bash in 2012. In 2013, Kodjoe began starring in the Black Entertainment Television comedy parody series Real Husbands of Hollywood.
In 2014 he was cast as regular on the American Broadcasting Company primetime soap opera Members Only created by Susannah Grant. In 2015, Kodjoe began a recurring guest-star role in Fox"s The Last Manitoba on Earth television series.