Daniel Kaluuya

Kaluuya in 2017, photo by DFree/Bigstock.com

Birth Name: Joseph Kaluuya

Place of Birth: Camden, London, England, U.K.

Date of Birth: 24 February, 1989

Ethnicity: Ugandan

Daniel Kaluuya is a British actor and writer. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Judas and the Black Messiah at the 2021 ceremony, playing Fred Hampton. He is also known for starring as Chris in the horror film Get Out and Slim in Queen and Slim, as well as for his role in Widows.

Daniel was born in Camden, London. His parents, Damalie Namusoke and Stephen Kaluuya, are from Uganda. He was born Joseph Kaluuya, but later changed his named to Daniel, taking Joseph as his middle name. He was raised on a council estate.

Daniel has said:

I’m dark-skinned… When I’m around black people I’m made to feel “other” because I’m dark-skinned. I’ve had to wrestle with that, with people going “You’re too black.” Then I come to America and they say, “You’re not black enough.” I go to Uganda, I can’t speak the language. In India, I’m black. In the black community, I’m dark-skinned. In America, I’m British. Bro!

…This is the frustrating thing, bro—in order to prove that I can play this role [in Get Out], I have to open up about the trauma that I’ve experienced as a black person. I have to show off my struggle so that people accept that I’m black. No matter that every single room I go to I’m usually the darkest person there.

He is the first person born in the 1980s to have won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (Haley Joel Osment, nominated in the category, for The Sixth Sense, 1999, is the first male born in the decade to have been nominated in any acting category).