Ugandan-British award-winning actor, Daniel Kaluuya has made TIME’s 100 most influential people of 2021.
He is listed in the artists’ category which also includes names like Kate Winslet, Steven Yeun, Scarlett Johansson, Lil Nas X, Tracee Ellis Ross, Barbara Kruger, Kane Brown and Jessica B Harris, Jason Sudeikis.
This comes just days after the Emmys where he was a nominee in the Outstanding Guest Actor in a comedy series category that went to comedian, Dave Chapelle.
In April, Daniel Kaluuya won the Academy Award for best supporting actor for his portrayal of Fred Hampton in “Judas and the Black Messiah,” beating out his co-star, Lakeith Stanfield, who was also nominated in the category.
This same year, Judas and the Black Messiah also won him Best Supporting Actor in the Golden Globe Awards, Outstanding Performance by Male Actor in the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Best Supporting Actor in the Critics Choice Awards, and Best Actor in a Supporting Role in the BAFTA Film Awards.
Kaluuya, 32, was nominee in the Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series (Saturday Night Live) and Best Performance in a Movie (MTV Movie & TV Awards).
In a citation regarding the TIME 100 feature, Director and an Oscar-nominated producer, Ryan Kyle Coogler had this to say about Kaluuya… “To have a conversation with Daniel Kaluuya is a unique experience. He watches you with intense eyes and listens seemingly without fear or judgment, only attention and empathy. Admirers of Daniel’s craftsmanship often note his smile and how he breathes life into language. But I think his performances register on such a deep level because Daniel is a watcher, a listener, an empathetic soul committed to relating to other human beings, no matter who they are or where they are from”.
“When director Shaka King chose to cast him as Fred Hampton, a Black Panther Party leader who was killed in Chicago by police in 1969, in the 2021 film Judas and the Black Messiah, I figured there would come a time when Daniel would have to meet Hampton’s surviving family. I knew without question that Daniel would earn their confidence to portray their loved one and leader—due not to his celebrity, but his empathy. I can’t wait to see where that empathy takes Daniel next,” Coogler adds.
This year’s TIME 100 list also has Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (WTO Director General), Tim Cook (Apple), Elon Musk (Tesla & SpaceX), Shonda Rhimes (TV Producer), Naomi Osaka (tennis player), Timbaland and Swiz Beatz (record producers), Billie Eilish (singer) among others.
Kaluuya’s career has not been without some controversy, his identity being part of it.
His performance in 2017 film ‘Get Out’ where Kaluuya portrays an Africam-American man who falls victim to the perils of white liberal racism, was met with criticism from American film star, Samuel L. Jackson.
Jackson was against the notion of black British actors playing American roles.
“I resent that I have to prove that I’m black,” Kaluuya responded at the time.
“In order to prove that I can play this role, I have to open up about the trauma that I’ve experienced as a black person,” Kaluuya said. “I have to show off my struggle so that people accept that I’m black.”
Born In London to Ugandan immigrant parents, Kaluuya grew up with his mother, Damalie Namusoke and an older sister on a housing project in Camden, North London.
Speaking about his upbringing previously, he said: “My mum is from Uganda. She came to London to give birth to me. I lived in hostels until I was two, and then she got a home in Camden, where I grew up. She was on benefits for a long while.”
Daniel’s parents split when Damalie was pregnant with Daniel, because of “misunderstandings” after they moved to the UK in the late 1980s.
