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"FacebookPinterest\n\nIf you aren't a hardcore cinephile, Chiwetel Ejiofor's name probably seemed vaguely familiar, though you probably weren't sure how to pronounce it. (Let's clear this up early: It's pronounced CHEW-AH-TELL.) But this was all before 12 Years a Slave. Now, if you follow movie news at all, you sure as hell know his name, since critics, including GQ's Tom Carson, have given 12 Years rave reviews for its startling, candid portrait of American slavery. You probably also know that Ejiofor has a good shot at nabbing an Oscar for playing the movie's main character, Solomon Northrup, the free black man forced to work as a slave on a Southern plantation. It is for this complex and heart-wrenching performance we've named Ejiofor \"Powerhouse of the Year\" in our annual Men of the Year issue. And in honor of the British actor's breakout year, we've compiled his career highlights in case you want to brush up on your Ejiofor. Which you will, because he'll be around for a good while longer.\n\n\n\n\n\nDirty Pretty Things (2003)\n\nThough Ejiofor was in Steven Spielberg's 1997 classic Amistad, he had only a minor role. (He was the translator for the Africans on trial.) Ejiofor's role in Dirty Pretty Things--a straight-shooting but quietly poetic movie about the gritty underbelly of London--was his true breakout. He played Okwe, an exiled Nigerian who discovers a black-market organ harvesting ring operating out of the hotel where he works. This scene is the moment Ejiofor's character gets his first, painfully explicit hint about the illicit organ business.\n\n\n\n\n\nSerenity (2005)\n\nIn this cult classic, which is based on Joss Whedon's show Firefly, Ejiofor plays the cold-blooded \"Operative,\" who is hunting down the dangerous psychic River Tam. Here, Ejiofor convincingly conveys his character's ends-justify-the-means mindset.\n\n\n\n\n\nKinky Boots (2005) \n\nTesting his acting chops--and his ability to walk in his heels--playing Lola, a sassy drag queen who helps save a failing British shoe manufacturer, Ejiofor sings and dances through this film with grace and charm.\n\n\n\n\n\nChildren of Men (2006) \n\nThis film, which is about a bleak society grappling with an infertility crisis, features Ejiofor as Luke, a devoted rebel who dreams of a better future--and sees that vision's actualization in the womb of a woman who has, miraculously, conceived.\n\n\n\n\n\nAmerican Gangster (2007)\n\nIn this 2007 movie, Ejiofor plays Huey Lucas, a lieutenant in the criminal empire reigned over by his brother Frank, played by Denzel Washington. In this scene, Ejiofor is the one wearing the loud striped suit and funky sunglasses. (Are those things...purple?) And, by the way, his American accent is impressively spot-on.\n\n\n\n\n\nRedbelt (2008)\n\nEjiofor plays a tough mid-martial arts instructor with even tougher financial problems in this David Mamet film.\n\n\n\n2012 (2009)\n\nSo the Mayan apocalypse didn't happen (big surprise there), but if you feel any nostalgia for the minor anxiety you never admitted to, you can watch Ejiofor play presidential advisor Adrian Helmsley.\n\n\n\n\n\nSalt (2010)\n\nA Russian spy has infiltrated the C.I.A., and it is Ejiofor's job to track her down. Here, Ejiofor plays a shoot-first-ask-later intelligence officer chomping at the bit to bring Angelina Jolie's character, the supposed mole, into custody."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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