Idris Elba’s acting career – Journey from Holly street to Hollywood
At the age of 23, that was in the year 1995, Idris Elba hit his first major role on a series called ‘Bramwell’, a medical drama set in 1890’s England. He played the lead character in an episode of Season 1, an African petty thief named Charlie Carter, who lost his white wife to childbirth and had to figure out how to support his newborn daughter. His first credited role arrived in 1995, with a supporting role as a gigolo on the “Sex” episode of ‘Absolutely Fabulous’. Many supporting roles on British television followed, including series such as ‘The Bill ‘and T’he Ruth Rendell Mysteries’, etc.
However, the actor grew deeply frustrated, over the seemingly irrepressible tendency of British casting directors to peg him in supporting roles, never allowing him the chance of taking lead role even when he has all it takes.
Back in London,” he later recalled, I was always just going to be the best friend, or the crook or the detective on the side.”
When Elba could take no more of this, he immigrated to New York, in the United States. He settled in Brooklyn, New York, and Jersey City, New Jersey respectively, working as a doorman and DJ at the comedy club Carolines while struggling to make ends meet. Within a few years, he landed a starring role on what would come to be known as one of the best TV series of all time, ‘The Wire’, where he played the role of a crime boss.
In 2007, Elba signed on as the lead of the 2007 film ‘Tyler Perry’s Daddy’s Little Girls’, playing Monty, a blue-collar mechanic who falls in love with an attorney helping him gain custody of his kids, and finds the relationship and his custody hopes threatened by the return of his ex-wife.
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