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(written from a Production point of view)

Idris Elba, OBE (born 6 September 1972; age 51) is an actor who played Krall in Star Trek Beyond.

For Bad Robot Productions' "To Boldly Go" charity fundraising campaign, Elba nominated Heaven Homes as one of the charities to benefit from the money donated by fans. [1] He joined the cast in the announcement video, in which he break-danced. [2] According to Elba, his role needed two hours of prosthetics. [3] [4]

He is best known for his roles in the television series The Wire (co-starring Sonja Sohn, John Doman, Robert Wisdom, and Reg E. Cathey) and Luther, as well as portraying Nelson Mandela in the biopic Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Elba played the Asgardian gatekeeper Heimdall in the Thor and Avengers films, which had him working with Kenneth Branagh, Chris Hemsworth, Alice Krige, Benedict Cumberbatch, and his Star Trek Beyond co-stars Karl Urban and Zoë Saldana.

One of Elba's earliest film roles was Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls (2007) followed that same year portraying drug trafficker Turner Lucas in the Ridley Scott directed biopic American Gangster, co-starring Kathleen Garrett and Clarence Williams III. In 2008, he appeared in RocknRolla, which also included Tom Hardy. In 2010, he was part of the cast of The Losers with Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Zoë Saldana. In 2012, Elba was featured in Prometheus, co-written by Damon Lindelof. In 2013, he played Stacker Pentecost in Pacific Rim, which also featured Clifton Collins, Jr., Ron Perlman, and Brad William Henke.

In addition to Star Trek Beyond, Elba could be heard providing voiceover in three 2016 Disney films: Zootopia (with music by Michael Giacchino), The Jungle Book, and Finding Dory. More recently, he appeared in the 2017 biopic Molly's Game (with Claire Rankin), the Stephen King adaptation The Dark Tower from the same year (written by Akiva Goldsman), and the 2019 musical Cats.

In 2016, Elba received three Screen Actors Guild Award nominations in the categories Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role for Beasts of No Nation, Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture for Beasts of No Nation, and Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries for Luther. [5]

Among Elba's non-Trek achievements was being named People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive for 2018. Chris Hemsworth and Dwayne The Rock Johnson were awarded the honor respectively in 2014 and 2016. Elba and Johnson are also co-starred in the 2019 The Fast & the Furious spinoff Hobbs & Shaw.

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