FAST FACTS

Chadwick has a BA degree in directing. He didn’t plan on becoming an actor until he was encouraged by The Cosby Show’s Phylicia Rashad. He worked as a drama teacher in Harlem, New York, before moving to Los Angeles to start his acting career in 2008. S His big acting break was playing baseball legend Jackie Robinson in the movie 42. Before that he’d had guest roles on TV in Third Watch, ER, Law & Order and CSI: New York. S To prepare for the lead role in the upcoming Black Panther – in which he plays the king of a fictional African country, Wakanda – Chadwick worked with a dialect coach to craft a Xhosa accent. He told talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel his character in the Netflix film Message to the King, in which he plays a Cape Town taxi driver, also helped him to nail the accent.