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Michael Obiora (born 8 October 1986) is a British actor, writer, director, and producer.

Michael Obiora
Born	(1986-10-08) 8 October 1986 (age 35) Camden, London, England
Occupation	Actor, Writer, Director, Producer
Years active	1996–present

Life and career

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]

At the age of nine, Obiora became the youngest actor to have appeared in 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, starring opposite Footballers Wives star Zöe Lucker.

Shortly after filming Bombshell, Obiora started a seven-month run as one of the leads in the award-winning play Elmina's Kitchen, written by Kwame Kwei-Armah, at the Garrick Theatre. Elmina's Kitchen is only the second play in history written by a writer of African descent to be staged in the West End. Obiora also had the lead role in the stage play Exclude Me, completing a successful 11-week run on stage at The Chelsea Theatre, and lead roles in the plays Fallout starring opposite Lennie James, at the Royal Court Theatre, Badnuff starring opposite David Harewood, 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, ITV1's Afterlife , Doctor Who ("Blink") - his portrayal of Carey Mulligan's love interest, Di Billy Shipton, was critically acclaimed, and the episode has been voted in the Top 5 best ever. Obiora has also starred in Doctors, Powers, The Bill for five episodes as Nathan Morley, and Holby City. He was in four episodes of EastEnders; the first episode airing on 11 June 2009, in which he played playboy footballer, Ellis Prince.

Obiora became hugely recognisable when he played receptionist Ben Trueman in the BBC One drama series Hotel Babylon,[2] which ran for four seasons. He joined the cast of the long-running BAFTA winning medical drama Casualty for its 26th season playing the part of Lloyd Asike, a nurse. He spent two years on the show.[3] Alongside Stanley Tucci, Sofie Gråbøl, Michael Gambon, and Christopher Eccleston, Obiora was part of an international ensemble that formed the cast of Sky Atlantic's critically acclaimed 2015 epic eleven-part crime thriller, Fortitude - the series was filmed over six months in Iceland. In 2016, he travelled to South Africa to film Hooten and The Lady, in which he played Julian. On 18 January 2017 Obiora made an appearance in Midsomer Murders on ITV as Oliver Marcet in the episode "Red in Tooth and Claw." Later that year, Obiora played Dr Harwood in the Channel 4 comedy pilot titled Anxio(US), and he starred in the television remake of Guy Ritchie's Snatch as New York Jewellery dealer Nas Stone. In 2018 he played Baxter in the reboot of Warner Bros Tombraider, with the film grossing $275 million at the box office. Later that year he played Ed in the short film Downtime. Michael starred opposite Idris Elba as Errol Minty in the Golden Globe winning Luther between 2015 and 2019. In 2021 Michael made an appearance as a charismatic American preacher in the RTS nominated BBC comedy series Jerk. Michael made his directorial debut with the short film Soaperstar in 2020. He also wrote and starred in the short, and it was the recipient of the Film Short: Award of Recognition, and Award of Merit: Best Actor - Michael Obiora, at the Best Shorts Awards 2020. It also won a Best Actor award for Michael at the Europe Film Festival 2020, as well as being officially selected for screening at the ACADEMY AWARD® qualifying Pan African Film Festival 2021.

In 2021 Michael made his second directorial outing with the short film KARMArcus. He also wrote and starred in the film, and was awarded Best Actor at the London Movie Awards 2021 for his role as Marcus. KARMArcus also won the award for Outstanding Short Script at the Black Swan International Film Festival 2022.

Michael is also a hugely successful voiceover artist having voiced campaigns for Adidas, and Jacamo among many others. He narrated the popular London to Lagos: Lifestyles of The Super Rich documentary broadcast on Channel 4, and he has narrated many audiobooks including Sarah Burns' critically acclaimed The Central Park 5, speculative sci-fi fantasy novel A River Called Time by Courttia Newland, and Nobel Prize for Literature great Wole Soyinka's Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth. This was Soyinka's first novel in 25 years. Michael is also one of the narrators of Geraldine Brooks' historical fiction novel, Horse. Along with the other narrators Michael won an Earphone Award for his work on the audiobook. Obiora is also the voice of Chike in the popular American cartoon series Robozuna, on Netflix.

Michael played the part of DS Watende Robinson in the hugely successful BBC Radio 4 detective drama Craven from 2009 - 2014. The show also starred Maxine Peake, and was written by Amelia Bullmore.

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

Personal life

Michael was expelled from secondary school at age fifteen, the year before his GCSEs.

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.[4]

In 2014 Michael married his long term partner in a beach wedding ceremony in her native the Seychelles. They welcomed their first child in May 2020.

Appearances

Year	Show	Role
1998–2002	Grange Hill	Max Abassi
2002	Doctors	Adam Charlton
2003	The Bill	Nathan Morley
2003	Holby City	Perry Green
2004	Sea of Souls	Lucas
2004	Powers	Tyrone Lewis
2004	My Family	Jack
2005	Judge John Deed	Jez Balfe
2006	Bombshell	Gunner Jackson Clark
2006	Afterlife	Terence Olivets
2006–2009	Hotel Babylon	Ben Trueman
2007	Doctor Who	DI Billy Shipton
2007	The MOBOS	Himself; Guest Presenter
2007	Children in Need	Ben Trueman
2008	Big Brothers Big Mouth	Himself
2008	Nuts TV	Himself
2008–2015	The Wright Stuff	Himself; Guest Panelist
2008	Soccer AM	Himself
2008	Ready Steady Cook	Himself; Contestant
2008	Breakfast	Himself
2009–2015	OH TV	Himself; Guest Panelist
2009	Celebrity MasterChef	Himself
2009	EastEnders	Ellis
2009	Misfits	Detective Pete
2011	Lethal	Andrew
2011–2013	Casualty	Lloyd Asike
2015	Fortitude	Max Cordero
2015, 2019	Luther	Errol Minty
2016	Hooten and The Lady	Julian
2017	Midsommer Murders	Oliver Marcet
2017	Anxio(US)	Dr Harwood
2017	Snatch	Nas Stone
2018	Tomb Raider	Baxter
2018	Downtime	Ed
2018 - 2020	Robozuna	Chike/Sarcio
2020	Death in Paradise	Christopher Williams
2020	Soaperstar	Aidan Okafor
2021	Jerk	Preacher
2021	KARMArcus	Marcus

Audiobooks

Year	Title	Author
2019	The Clapback	Elijah Lawal
2019	Are We Nearly There Yet?	Puffin
2020	Stories for Rainy Days	Ladybird
2020	The Central Park 5	Sarah Burns
2020	The Tales of Catt and Fisher: After the War, Book 3	Justina Robson
2021	The Road to Wigan Pier	George Orwell
2021	A River Called Time	Courttia Newland
2021	Still Breathing: 100 Black Voices on Racism - 100 Ways to Change the Narrative.	Suzanne Packer & Suzette Llewelyn
2021	The 392	Ashley Hickson-Lovence
2021	Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth	Wole Soyinka
2022	African Town	Charles Waters
2022	A Black Boy at Eton	Dillibe Onyeama
2022	Plan For Chaos	John Wyndham
2022	Horse	Geraldine Brooks
2022	On Java Road	Lawrence Osborne

See also

• List of people diagnosed with coeliac disease

References

External links

• Michael Obiora at IMDb

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