JOHN BOYEGA
Actor
Boyega will have time to explore lots more opportunities now that the final chapter of Disney and Lucasfilm’s Skywalker saga has wrapped. The South Londoner rose to prominence in the U.K. in 2011 sci-fi comedy “Attack the Block” and burnished his credentials with lead roles in Kathryn Bigelow’s historical drama “Detroit” and sci-fi blockbuster “Pacific Rim: Uprising.” He’s set to star in heist drama “Naked Singularity” and in Netflix thriller “Rebel Ridge.” He heads an all-star British cast in director Steve Mcqueen’s upcoming anthology series, “Small Axe,” set in London’s West Indian community in the late 1960s through early ’80s.
One of the most acclaimed and talented directors of her generation, with a knack for creating theater that’s both intellectually challenging and commercially successful, Elliott was the first female director to win two Tony Awards, for “War Horse” and “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.” Both debuted at the National Theatre in London, where Elliott was an associate director for 10 years and where she oversaw the lauded revival of “Angels in America,” starring Andrew Garfield and Nathan Lane, which transferred to Broadway in March 2018. It went on to win three Tonys. Her West End production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Company,” which makes the protagonist a woman instead of a man, received four Olivier Awards; it opens in New York in March. More recently, Elliott swapped an African American family for the usually white characters in a London staging of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman.” “If you’re a creative person or artist, you have to follow your instincts,” Elliott says. Those instincts led her to start her own company, Elliott & Harper Prods., alongside producing partner Chris Harper. Of her approach as a director, Elliott says: “I don’t think realism works particularly well in the theater. If you want to do something realistic, you’re much better served on film or TV. The theater is about the imagination.”