Djimon Hounsou is a two-time Academy Award-nominated actor for his work in Ed Zwick’s Blood Diamond and Jim Sheridan’s In America. He next appears in John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place 2 and Matthew Vaughn’s The King’s Man.
Born in Benin, West Africa, Hounsou moved to Paris at the age of 13 to pursue a Western education. As an adult, he was discovered by fashion designer Thierry Mugler and subsequently modeled for and appeared in several iconic music videos for legendary photographer Herb Ritts and director David Fincher. Small film roles followed before Hounsou’s breakthrough performance as Cinque, the African who leads an uprising to regain his freedom in Steven Spielberg’s Amistad (1997). Hounsou earned a Golden Globe nomination and a NAACP Image Award for the part. He later shared a SAG Award nomination as a member of the cast of Ridley Scott’s Academy Award-winning Best Picture G
Djimon Hounsou is a two-time Academy Award-nominated actor for his work in Ed Zwick’s Blood Diamond and Jim Sheridan’s In America. He next appears in John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place 2 and Matthew Vaughn’s The King’s Man.
Born in Benin, West Africa, Hounsou moved to Paris at the age of 13 to pursue a Western education. As an adult, he was discovered by fashion designer Thierry Mugler and subsequently modeled for and appeared in several iconic music videos for legendary photographer Herb Ritts and director David Fincher. Small film roles followed before Hounsou’s breakthrough performance as Cinque, the African who leads an uprising to regain his freedom in Steven Spielberg’s Amistad (1997). Hounsou earned a Golden Globe nomination and a NAACP Image Award for the part. He later shared a SAG Award nomination as a member of the cast of Ridley Scott’s Academy Award-winning Best Picture Gladiator.
In 2006, Hounsou received an NAACP Image Award, a National Board of Review citation and a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for his role as a forced laborer who discovers a rare gem in Blood Diamond, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. For his performance as an artist afflicted with AIDS in In America, Hounsou garnered an Independent Spirit Award, was named 2004’s ShoWest Supporting Actor of the Year and shared an ensemble SAG Award nomination.
His film credits also include Captain Marvel, Shazam!, James Gunn’s Guardians Of The Galaxy, Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur: The Legend Of The Sword and David Yate’s The Legend Of Tarzan. He lent his voice as Drago Bludvist to How To Train Your Dragon 2 (Twentieth Century Fox) and also co-starred in Same Kind Of Different As Me, The Island, The Tempest, Eragon, Constantine, Jan de Bont’s Lara Croft, Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life and Shekhar Kapur’s The Four Feathers with Heath Ledger.
For television, Hounsou voiced The Black Panther in the BET animated series based on the Marvel Comic. He also starred as a refugee seeking asylum in a memorable six-episode arc on ER and played a recurring role in the series Alias, starring Jennifer Garner. More recently, he starred as CJ Mitchum in the second season of Wayward Pines on FOX.
Hounsou is producing and developing a slate of feature films and documentaries via his company Fanaticus Entertainment. Through Fanaticus, Hounsou has a clear commitment to bettering Africa by using his accumulated knowledge and influence to allow the Continent’s stories to be heard. Fanaticus completed their first documentary called In Search Of Voodoo about the traditions that define West Africa, the Continent, and the African Diaspora (Cuba, Brazil, Haiti, Argentina, U.S., etc.). The film shows how this way of life has been misrepresented and diabolized in Western culture.
Hounsou is a prominent supporter of child-focused causes and climate change issues and is an advocate for sustainable, community-led change. He is a celebrity ambassador for Orbis and Oxfam and has used his experience to raise awareness about issues like healthy childhood, empowerment, social justice, and combating the impact of climate change on some of the world’s most vulnerable populations in Africa and beyond. In 2009, he opened the UN General Assembly in New York with a compelling speech about the impact of climate change on developing nations. Hounsou has appeared before the U.S. Senate on behalf of the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act and participated in a hearing and summit for the International Arms Ban Treaty. Late last year, he launched the Djimon Hounsou Foundation and will be hosting the Gate of No Return Marathon & Festival in Benin, West Africa, to fight modern-day slavery.
