Michael Obiora

Michael Obiora (pronounced OH-BEE-ORA) was born on 8 October 1986 in north-west London, England, to Nigerian-Igbo parents. As a six-year-old, he was determined to become an entertainer like his idol Michael Jackson, and his mother enrolled him in drama lessons.^[1] He describes having challenging teen years, as he was once badly injured, later expelled from secondary school before his GCSEs, and then his father passed away.^[2]

At the age of nine, Obiora became the youngest actor to have appeared in the children's television series Grange Hill; he played Max Abassi on the programme for five years.

Just before his 18th birthday, Obiora landed a role playing the part of Gunner Jackson Clarke, a soldier in ITV's eight-part series Bombshell. Shortly after filming that series, he started a seven-month run as one of the leads in the award-winning play Elmina's Kitchen, at the Garrick Theatre. He later had the lead role in the play Exclude Me, in an 11-week run at the Chelsea Theatre, and lead roles in the plays Fallout, at the Royal Court Theatre, Badnuff, at the Soho Theatre, and Headstone at the Arcola Theatre.

Obiora has had television roles in My Family, Judge John Deed, Misfits, Sea of Souls, Afterlife, and the acclaimed 2007 Doctor Who episode "Blink",^[3] He has also starred in Doctors, Powers, The Bill for five episodes as Nathan Morley, and Holby City. In 2009, he appeared in four episodes of EastEnders, as playboy footballer Ellis Prince.

Obiora gained attention as the openly gay receptionist Ben Trueman, in the main cast of the drama series Hotel Babylon (2006–2009).^[4] He played nurse Lloyd Asike for two seasons (2011–2013), on the long-running medical drama Casualty.^[5] He was part of international ensemble that formed the cast of the 2015 epic eleven-part crime thriller, Fortitude, filmed in Iceland. He then appeared in the 2016 film Hooten & the Lady, shot in South Africa.

He starred in the television remake of Guy Ritchie's Snatch, as New York jewelry dealer Nas Stone. He starred as Errol Minty in Luther, between 2015 and 2019. In 2018 he played Baxter in the Tomb Raider film reboot. In 2021, he as a charismatic American preacher in the comedy series Jerk.

Obiora made his directorial debut with the short film Soaperstar in 2020, which he also wrote and starred in. The work earned him: Film Short: Award of Recognition and Award of Merit: Best Actor, at the Best Shorts Awards 2020; Best Actor at the Europe Film Festival 2020; and it was officially selected for screening at the Pan African Film Festival 2021. In 2021, he wrote, directed and starred in the short film KARMArcus, winning Best Actor at the London Movie Awards 2021 for his role as Marcus, as well as Outstanding Short Script at the Black Swan International Film Festival 2022.

Obiora has worked as a voice artist for a number of years, including: advertising campaigns for Adidas, Jacamo and others; narration on the London to Lagos: Lifestyles of The Super Rich television documentary; and the voice of Chike in the American cartoon series Robozuna and Valentin in Kitti Katz. He has narrated numerous audiobooks, including works by Sarah Burns, Courttia Newland, Wole Soyinka and others. He narrated the part of Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, for the audiobook of Geraldine Brooks' historical fiction novel, Horse, sharing an AudioFile magazine Earphone Award – with the other four narrators – in 2022.^[6]

Obiora played DS Watende Robinson in the BBC Radio 4 detective drama Craven, from 2009 to 2014.

Obiora's first novel, Black Shoes, was released in 2009.^[1] His second novel, Vivian's Couch, was published in November 2014.

Obiora is a sports and fitness enthusiast and is a keen Arsenal fan. In 2008 he was diagnosed with celiac disease and has thus had to control his diet.^[7]

In 2014, Obiora married his long term partner in a beach wedding ceremony in her native the Seychelles. The couple have a child who was born in 2020.^[2]

• List of people diagnosed with coeliac disease

• Michael Obiora at IMDb