Idrissa Akuna Elba OBE (/ˈɪdrɪs/; born 6 September 1972) is an English actor. An alumnus of the National Youth Theatre in London, he is known for roles including Stringer Bell in the HBO series The Wire (2002–2004), DCI John Luther in the BBC One series Luther (2010–2019), and Nelson Mandela in the biographical film Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013). For Luther, he received four nominations each for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor, winning one of the former.

Elba appeared in Ridley Scott's American Gangster (2007), Obsessed (2009) and Prometheus (2012). He portrayed Heimdall in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), beginning with Thor (2011), and Bloodsport in The Suicide Squad (2021), set in the DC Extended Universe. He also starred in Pacific Rim (2013), Beasts of No Nation (2015), for which he received Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for Best Supporting Actor, and Molly's Game (2017). One of his other prominent roles was that of Rufus Buck in the Western film The Harder They Fall (2021). Elba has also voiced characters in Zootopia, The Jungle Book, Finding Dory (all 2016), and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022). He made his directorial debut in 2018 with an adaptation of the 1992 novel Yardie by Victor Headley.

Apart from acting, Elba performs as a DJ under the moniker DJ Big Driis or Idris and as an R&B singer. In 2016, he was named in the Time 100 list of the Most Influential People in the World. As of May 2019, his films have grossed over $9.8 billion at the global box office, including over $3.6 billion in North America, where he is one of the top 20 highest-grossing actors.

Early life
Idrissa Akuna Elba was born on 6 September 1972 in the London Borough of Hackney, to Winston Elba, a Sierra Leonean Creole man who worked at the Ford Dagenham plant, and Eve, a Ghanaian woman. His parents were married in Sierra Leone and later moved to London. Elba was raised in Hackney and East Ham; he shortened his first name to "Idris" at school in Canning Town, where he first became involved in acting. He credits The Stage with giving him his first big break. After seeing an advertisement for a play in it; he auditioned and subsequently met his first agent while performing in the role. In 1986, he began helping an uncle with his wedding DJ business; within a year, he had started his own DJ company with some of his friends.

Elba briefly attended Barking and Dagenham College, leaving school in 1988 and winning a place in the National Youth Music Theatre after a £1,500 Prince's Trust grant. In order to support himself between roles in his early career, he worked in odd jobs including tyre-fitting, cold-calling, and night shifts at Ford Dagenham. He was worked in nightclubs under the DJ nickname "Big Driis" during his adolescence, but began auditioning for television roles in his early twenties.