Boris Frederic Cecil Tay-Natey Ofuatey-Kodjoe (/ˈkoÊŠdÊ'uË /; born
March 8, 1973), better known as Boris Kodjoe, is an Austrian-American
actor, producer, and former model best known for his roles as Kelby in
the 2002 film Brown Sugar, the sports-courier agent Damon Carter on
the Showtime drama series Soul Food, and a recurring character on
FOX's The Last Man on Earth. He co-stars on BET's Real Husbands of
Hollywood and the Grey's Anatomy spin-off, Station 19 as Battalion
Chief Robert Sullivan.Kodjoe was born in Vienna, Austria, the son of
Ursula, a German psychologist of partial Jewish descent, and Eric
Kodjoe, a Ghanaian physician who is of the Ga-Adangbe people. His
namesake is the Russian poet and writer Boris Pasternak. Kodjoe's
matrilineal great-grandmother was Jewish and was murdered in the
Holocaust; his maternal grandmother survived the war in hiding.
Kodjoe's parents divorced when he was six years old. He grew up in the
vicinity of Freiburg im Breisgau. He has a brother named Patrick and
two sisters named Nadja and Lara.Kodjoe attended Virginia Commonwealth
University on a tennis scholarship, and graduated with a bachelor's
degree in marketing in 1996. A four-year letterman on the Rams' men's
tennis team, he is currently ninth in school history with 75 career
singles wins. Tied for third in doubles victories with 66, he was
paired with Jonas Elmblad on 37 of them, also third all-time. His
brother Patrick Kodjoe played for VCU's basketball team. A back injury
ended Boris' tennis aspirations, but he was quickly signed as a model
and soon after entered acting. In 1995, he was featured in TLC's music
video for "Red Light Special."Named one of the "50 Most Beautiful
People in the World" by People magazine in 2002, Kodjoe is perhaps
best known as one of the seven regular cast members from the Showtime
drama Soul Food, which aired from 2000 to 2004. He appeared in the
2002 film Brown Sugar and starred in the short-lived sitcom Second
Time Around with his Soul Food co-star Nicole Ari Parker, whom he
eventually married. He played the role of David Taylor, the wayward
son of Pastor Fred Taylor, in the October 2005 film The Gospel. He
performed in a play called Whatever She Wants, starring Vivica A. Fox,
and made an appearance on the fifth season of Nip/Tuck. His most
recent role was in the 2009 science fiction film Surrogates. On
December 16, 2009, it was announced that Kodjoe had been cast as the
male lead, Steven Bloom, in the new J. J. Abrams television series
Undercovers; the show premiered in September and was subsequently
cancelled in November 2010 on NBC. Also that year, he appeared as
Luther in the film Resident Evil: Afterlife. He appeared on Franklin &
Bash in 2010.
March 8, 1973), better known as Boris Kodjoe, is an Austrian-American
actor, producer, and former model best known for his roles as Kelby in
the 2002 film Brown Sugar, the sports-courier agent Damon Carter on
the Showtime drama series Soul Food, and a recurring character on
FOX's The Last Man on Earth. He co-stars on BET's Real Husbands of
Hollywood and the Grey's Anatomy spin-off, Station 19 as Battalion
Chief Robert Sullivan.Kodjoe was born in Vienna, Austria, the son of
Ursula, a German psychologist of partial Jewish descent, and Eric
Kodjoe, a Ghanaian physician who is of the Ga-Adangbe people. His
namesake is the Russian poet and writer Boris Pasternak. Kodjoe's
matrilineal great-grandmother was Jewish and was murdered in the
Holocaust; his maternal grandmother survived the war in hiding.
Kodjoe's parents divorced when he was six years old. He grew up in the
vicinity of Freiburg im Breisgau. He has a brother named Patrick and
two sisters named Nadja and Lara.Kodjoe attended Virginia Commonwealth
University on a tennis scholarship, and graduated with a bachelor's
degree in marketing in 1996. A four-year letterman on the Rams' men's
tennis team, he is currently ninth in school history with 75 career
singles wins. Tied for third in doubles victories with 66, he was
paired with Jonas Elmblad on 37 of them, also third all-time. His
brother Patrick Kodjoe played for VCU's basketball team. A back injury
ended Boris' tennis aspirations, but he was quickly signed as a model
and soon after entered acting. In 1995, he was featured in TLC's music
video for "Red Light Special."Named one of the "50 Most Beautiful
People in the World" by People magazine in 2002, Kodjoe is perhaps
best known as one of the seven regular cast members from the Showtime
drama Soul Food, which aired from 2000 to 2004. He appeared in the
2002 film Brown Sugar and starred in the short-lived sitcom Second
Time Around with his Soul Food co-star Nicole Ari Parker, whom he
eventually married. He played the role of David Taylor, the wayward
son of Pastor Fred Taylor, in the October 2005 film The Gospel. He
performed in a play called Whatever She Wants, starring Vivica A. Fox,
and made an appearance on the fifth season of Nip/Tuck. His most
recent role was in the 2009 science fiction film Surrogates. On
December 16, 2009, it was announced that Kodjoe had been cast as the
male lead, Steven Bloom, in the new J. J. Abrams television series
Undercovers; the show premiered in September and was subsequently
cancelled in November 2010 on NBC. Also that year, he appeared as
Luther in the film Resident Evil: Afterlife. He appeared on Franklin &
Bash in 2010.
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