Idris Elba is a renowned English actor, producer, musician and DJ, and in these last couple of years he’s become one of the busiest actors in Hollywood, with a lot of good film titles under his belt.
Well known from The Wire, Thor or Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, Idris has now acquired much acclaim for his role in the film adaptation of one of Stephen King’s novels, book one from The Dark Tower series. Idris has taken his time towards stardom and has slowly grown a decent net worth of $30 million so far.
Early Life
His full name is Idrissa Akuna “Idris” Elba and he was born on September 6, 1972 in Hackney, London, the only child of his family. His parents married in Sierra Leone, Africa but moved to London afterwards.
Idris found his passion for acting in school while performing for a stage production, where he met his very first agent. He also started his first business, as a DJ, back in 1986. One year later he had a DJ company, together with some friends.
In 1988 he attended the National Youth Music Theatre where he got a role in BBC’s Crimewatch. But that wasn’t enough for him to get by so he had to work other jobs as well between filming the episodes for the series. He also had his DJ-ing gigs in nightclubs now and then.
Acting Career
Idris Elba started off his career in acting for real in 1995 when he landed a role, his first important role, in the series Bramwell. Subsequently, he had many other supporting roles before deciding to move to New York City.
There, in 2002, he managed to get a role in The Wire, an HBO series in which he portrayed Stringer Bell, the character that became one of Elba’s most known appearances in the United States. He kept it until 2004.
A few years later he made the transition to the big screen, his first movie being Daddy’s Little Girls in 2007. The same year he appeared in the sci-fi horror movie 28 Weeks Later. A few more horror films followed, and then he shifted his roles into more dramatic ones.
In 2010 he starred in Luther, a six part BBC series and in the film Legacy. In 2012 he played in Prometheus and then Pacific Rim in 2013. That year was a big one for him since he appeared as well in Thor: The Dark World and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.
His last three years were filled with roles in several good films, such as Avengers: Age of Ultron and Beasts of No Nation in 2015, voice roles in the animations The Jungle Book, Zootopia and Finding Dory in 2016 and The Dark Tower and Thor: Ragnarok in 2017.
If the first part of Elba’s career was slow, during the last years it seems he’s stepping up the gas pedal.
Music and Other Projects
Aside from his acting career, Idris Elba has built himself another career in the music industry. He started early as a DJ in the clubs of London and he still does that today. Besides, he’s even released two EP’s, with the last one of them doing quite good.
He’s also lending his musical talents to other artists, being featured in their music videos.
Apart from all that, Idris Elba has appeared in various commercials along the years as well. He’s not your fashion type of guy and doesn’t usualy do any endorsements, but he accepted to endorse the British brand Superdry because he had developed a good relationship with the founders. And he also had a campaign for Smartwater.
Houses and Cars
Idris Elba doesn’t like to be arrogant so he doesn’t brag with what he owns. We can tell you that he lives in Los Angeles now, after having been living in Miami and New York at some point in his life.
But there’s something else that he gave away in an interview for NY Times. He’s got a little house in France. And his home in Los Angeles has a Jacuzzi in its garden, so we’ll assume that his home is quite a decent one.
Idris Elba learned to drive at 13, without his parents knowing. He even bought himself a car, a Mini, at 14. It was illegal, but he got away with it because he looked more mature and had grown himself a decent beard. At that point he also had a girlfriend, a lovely 19 year old girl to which he would say he’s going to work, when he was actually going to school. But with a beard and a Mini, it all seemed plausible.
His first real car though was a Dodge Ram 1500, bought from his first paycheck from The Wire. Besides that, he’s got himself an $80,000 Jaguar XE, which is a nice and respectable acquisition.
Net Worth Over Time
Idris Elba might be a famous actor now, but when he first started in the industry, he had to work other jobs in order to make the ends meet.
His net worth was slow to grow over the years, but he’s ok with that. He’s not the one to need too much or to brag about possessions. Lately, he’s earning around $1.5 million per year, which is a decent sum even if it sounds very low for an actor like him.
But given the movies he’s playing in lately, you can be sure that his actual net worth of $30 million is about to grow very soon.
Last update: January 2021.
