Background

Ethnicity: According to Boseman, DNA testing has indicated that his ancestors were Krio people from Sierra Leone, Yoruba people from Nigeria and Limba people from Sierra Leone.

Chadwick Boseman was born on November 29, 1976 (1977 in some sources), in Anderson, South Carolina, the United States, to Carolyn and Leroy Boseman, both African Americans. His mother was a nurse and his father worked at a textile factory, keeping an upholstery business as well.

Education

Boseman graduated from T. L. Hanna High School in 1995. In his junior year, he wrote his first play, Crossroads, and staged it at the school after a classmate was shot and killed.

Boseman attended college at Howard University in Washington, D.C., graduating in 2000 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in directing. One of his teachers was Phylicia Rashad, who became a mentor. She helped raise funds so that Boseman and some classmates could attend the Oxford Mid-Summer Program of the British American Drama Academy in London, to which they had been accepted. After he returned to the United States, he enrolled at New York City's Digital Film Academy.

Career

Boseman began his career as a drama instructor in the Schomburg Junior Scholars Program in 2002. Chadwick Boseman started acting in 2003 when he bagged a recurring role in the TV series All My Children. Boseman started to make a name for himself on TV in the mid-2000s, with guest spots on crime dramas like Third Watch and CSI:NY, and on the soap opera All My Children. Additionally, he was one of the performers for the award-winning audio version of the 2005 novel Upstate, by Kalisha Buckhanon.

In 2008 Boseman landed a recurring role as Nathaniel Ray on the ABC Family drama Lincoln Heights, which focused on a suburban family who relocates to the urban community where the police officer patriarch was raised. The series ran for four seasons, with Boseman featured during the last two. During this period, he also had guest-starring roles on ER, Lie to Me, The Glades and Cold Case.

The year 2008 also saw Boseman appearing in Gary Fleder's The Express, a sports biopic about renowned running back Ernie Davis, who played for Syracuse University during the civil rights era. The film co-starred Rob Brown and Dennis Quaid, with Boseman featured as fellow running back Floyd Little.

Boseman would land his next prominent role as Graham McNair, a Muslim sergeant, on the 2010 NBC summer thriller Persons Unknown. In the series, seven people are kidnapped and trapped in a town by an unknown entity. The following year, Boseman landed additional guest spots on the shows Justified, Detroit 1-8-7, Fringe and Castle.

In 2012 Boseman played the lead role in the film The Kill Hole, directed by Mischa Webley. The indie production revolves around the life of a Portland, Oregon, taxi driver who's also an Iraq War veteran, haunted by memories of his past and drafted for a new mission by a private firm.

Around the same time, Boseman won the lead role in the Jackie Robinson biopic 42, which tells the story of the legendary baseball player who broke racial barriers by becoming the first African American to play in the majors in the 20th century. The film, written and directed by Brian Helgeland, and co-starring Harrison Ford as Brooklyn Dodgers executive Branch Rickey, was released in 2013.

"I'm overwhelmed by it," Boseman told the online publication Madame Noire about his role as the baseball legend. "It's just a huge responsibility. I wake up every morning, been working and prepping on it, and I'm having the time of my life, playing baseball ... studying footage. It's the opportunity of a lifetime to just do what I love." Movie audiences seemed impressed with all of Boseman's hard work on the project - the film earned $95 million in its initial release.

After his starring role in 42, Boseman's career continued to take off. He was named the Male Star of Tomorrow by the National Association of Theater Owners in February 2014. Boseman then appeared in the 2014 football film Draft Day, with Kevin Costner and Jennifer Garner.

Meanwhile, Boseman was working on another high-profile project: He signed on to portray music legend James Brown in Get on Up, a story that producer Brian Grazer had spent years trying to bring to the big screen. He was finally able to get the movie going with help from Mick Jagger.

Directed by Tate Taylor, Get on Up follows Brown through his personal struggles and successes. Boseman had to master the fast and furious footwork that the Godfather of Soul was famous for in the film. According to an interview with Moviefone.com, becoming James Brown was "a huge challenge" but also "a very intense and rewarding experience." Get on Up hit theaters in August 2014.

Boseman next surfaced in Gods of Egypt (2016), playing Thoth, the god of wisdom. He then starred in the revenge thriller Message from the King, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival later that year.

Also in 2016, Boseman joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe with his appearance in the superhero ensemble blockbuster Captain America: Civil War. He played T'Challa, king of the African country of Wakanda, who becomes the powerful Black Panther.

Following a return to dramatic fare with Thurgood (2017), about a case early in the legal career of Justice Thurgood Marshall, Boseman was ready for his superhero closeup in Black Panther. The film not only shattered box office records upon its February 2018 release, raking in an estimated $218 million domestically over the four-day President's Day weekend, but it also went on to earn an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. Later Boseman reprised the role in both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, which were released in April 2018 and April 2019 respectively.

Achievements

• Boseman was an outstanding actor, whose acting skills and charisma won him praise and love from critics and viewers. His portrayal of Black Panther in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was highly praised and is considered to be a great boost in his career. It also brought him several prestigious awards and nominations, including MTV Movie Award. As a playwright, his script for Deep Azure, performed at the Congo Square Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois, and was nominated for a 2006 Joseph Jefferson Award for New Work.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • Black Panther

    (When young King T'Challa is drawn into conflict with an o...)

    2018
  • Avengers: Infinity War

    (With the powerful Thanos on the verge of raining destruct...)

    2018
  • 42

    (In 1946, Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford) signed Jackie Robi...)

    2013
  • Marshall

    (Based on a true story, Marshall follows future Supreme Co...)

    2017
  • Draft Day

    (On the day of the NFL Draft, general manager Sonny Weaver...)

    2014
  • Gods Of Egypt

    (Gerard Butler and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau star as rival god...)

    2016
  • Captain America: Civil War

    (When an incident involving the Avengers results in collat...)

    2016
  • Avengers: Endgame

    (The fourth installment in the Avengers saga is the culmin...)

    2019
  • Get On Up

    (Chadwick Boseman is James Brown in Get On Up, based on th...)

    2014
  • The Express

    (Witness the inspirational true story of a real American h...)

    2008
  • The Kill Hole

    ("The Kill Hole" is a story about Lt. Samuel Drake who is ...)

    2013

Religion

Boseman was raised a Christian. He was baptized and was part of a church choir and youth group. Welfare Baptist Church in Anderson, South Carolina said what Boseman is doing now is a continuation of what he was doing in the church: "I just saw him mature, and blossom into a man, he did a lot of positive things within the church and within the community. With him singing in the choir, with him working for the youth group, he always was doing something, always helping out, always serving. That was his personality."

Boseman has stated that he prayed to be the Black Panther before he was cast as the character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Politics

When Boseman was asked for his opinion on President Trump, he responded: "I’d love to answer that but I don’t want to give him panther time."

Views

Quotations: "Every year, Hollywood is looking for that new, white leading man and new white starlet that audiences fall in love with. But they're not looking for the next Denzel Washington, Will Smith or Sidney Poitier."

"In television, you don't have a lot of time to spend with the role or the script. Typically you get a script a week prior to shooting. Sometimes it's even less time, not enough time to dream about the role."

"I think there's a difference between a working actor, a movie star and a celebrity. They're all three different things."

"I'm an artist. Artists don't need permission to work. Regardless of whether I'm acting or not, I write. I write when I'm tired in fact because I believe your most pure thoughts surface."

"I'm the kind of guy who comes home and checks scores for everything. I'm a sports fan in general, so I pretty much keep up with who's ahead in a division and everything that's going on."

Personality

Boseman was a very simple and cheerful man who loves engaging with his fans. Prior to his filmmaking or writing ambitions, Boseman loved to draw and was interested in becoming an architect.

During his time at Howard University, Boseman and some of his classmates attended an Oxford University summer theatre program. Due to the cost, Boseman’s teacher arranged anonymous donations from her friends in Hollywood, and Boseman found out afterwards that Denzel Washington was his donor. When Boseman met Washington at a premiere of his smash hit Black Panther, he got to thank the veteran actor in person.

Physical Characteristics: Boseman had an athletic build, a height of 6 ft or 183 cm, and a weight of 86 kg or 189.5 lbs. He had dark brown hair and eyes. Chadwick Boseman had mostly enjoyed a physically fit body with a lean body structure. Chadwick either worked out by himself at the gym or gets a professional trainer for special roles.

Interests

• Sport & Clubs

  basketball, baseball

Connections

Boseman dated Taylor Simone Ledward.

Father:

Leroy Boseman

Mother:

Carolyn Boseman

girlfriend:

Taylor Simone Ledward

colleague:

Chris Hemsworth

colleague:

Scarlett Johansson

colleague:

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau