Who is John Boyega?

John Boyega is an English actor, known for playing Finn in Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015). Boyega rose to prominence in his native England for his role of Moses in the 2011 sci-fi comedy film Attack the Block (2011), before attaining international recognition for his work as Finn in the seventh film of the Star Wars series.

Other credits include historical fiction drama film Half of a Yellow Sun (2013), four episodes of the television series 24: Live Another Day (2014), and the drama films Imperial Dreams (2014), The Circle (2017), and Detroit (2017).

Trivia

  • While filming Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017), he went to a strict diet and training regime. One day, he went to Carrie Fisher's trailer, telling her that he was fed up with eating healthy. She then offered him some candy that she had stashed inside her fridge. John compared that experience to walking right into a candy store. After that, he would often visit Fisher's trailer for occasional "cheat days".
  • One of the reasons J.J. Abrams cast him as Finn in Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015) was because of his performance in the sci-fi/action/comedy Attack the Block (2011). Abrams is a big fan of the film.
  • In 2012, he went to a meeting at the Bad Robot studio. While he was waiting in the lobby, he saw J.J. Abrams and Tom Cruise walking out of an editing room. Upon seeing him, Abrams asked "Boyega, right?", which resulted in a small conversation. Abrams said that he was a huge fan of Attack the Block (2011) (John's first film) and added "We're gonna get you in something". However, John was rather starstruck by Cruise and paid little attention to what Abrams just said. In 2014, he was cast in Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015), which was directed by J.J. Abrams. When Tom Cruise met John again at the Baftas, he asked "So, Star Wars, huh?", to which John happily replied "Yeah, mate".
  • Auditioned for the role of Eggsy in Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014), and was one of the three finalists along with Taron Egerton, who won the role.
  • Began acting at Theatre Peckham, a local performing arts centre in London for talented children aged 9 to 14. Boyega spent almost every day after school at the theatre, as well as weekends. At 16, he moved to South Thames College to study performing arts, and joined the Identity School of Acting in Hackney. He enrolled at Greenwich University but as his career took off, he left to concentrate on acting.