Actor Idris Elba: ‘I want to do a musical!’

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Idris Elba was born in 1972 in Hackney to a Sierra Leonean father and a Ghanaian mother. He started acting in the late 80s while still a teenager, and to support himself between roles, he worked odd jobs including tyre-fitting and night shifts at Ford in Dagenham. Around this time he also started DJing, which he still does to this day. He rose to prominence playing Stringer Bell in The Wire and later DCI John Luther in Luther, which earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. Idris Elba was appointed an OBE in 2016, and just this month he was knighted for his work on tackling youth violence. Idris Elba became the Listed Londoner in November 2014.