Adetomiwa Edun

Adetomiwa Edun
Born	Babatunde Adetomiwa Stafford 1985 (age 38–39) Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria
Alma mater	Christ's College, Cambridge Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (B.A., 2008)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2000–present
Notable work	Alex Hunter

Babatunde Adetomiwa Stafford "Tomiwa" Edun, Listen^ⓘ (born 1985)^[1][2] is a UK based Nigerian actor. He is best known for his roles as Sir Elyan in the television show Merlin, Marcus Young in Bates Motel and Alex Hunter in the football video games FIFA 17, FIFA 18 and FIFA 19.

Early life

Edun was born in Lagos, Nigeria, to Nigerian financier Olawale Edun and half-Ghanaian, half-English Amy Adwoa (née Appiah).^[1][2][3] His maternal uncle is the philosopher, cultural theorist and novelist Kwame Anthony Appiah.^[4] His maternal grandparents were Ghanaian lawyer, diplomat and politician Joseph Emmanuel Appiah- a Nana of the Ashanti people through whom Edun is a descendant of Ghanaian warrior emperor Osei Tutu- and art historian and author Peggy Cripps, daughter of Sir Stafford Cripps, Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1947 to 1950 and son of the first Lord Parmoor.^[1][2] Through his father, meanwhile, Edun claims direct descent from the colonial Egba official Adegboyega Edun.

Edun moved to the United Kingdom at the age of 11. He attended Eton College from the age of 13, before reading Classics at Christ's College, Cambridge (University of Cambridge).^[3][5][6] In his final year at Christ's College, he won the dissertation prize for his thesis on Homer's Odyssey.^[6] His father, a financier, encouraged Edun to enter banking as a career, and he interned with Citigroup.^[5] He considered studying for a Master of Philosophy degree, but decided to attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) instead.^[3]

Career

In 2000, Edun appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as the character Clifford in the show Kassandra by Ivo Stourton.^[7] Edun attended RADA, appearing in several productions and graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Acting in 2008.^[5][7] Following his graduation from RADA, he played small parts in productions at the Almeida Theatre and the Liverpool Playhouse.^[3] He also played Macbeth in a production of the eponymous play by the National Theatre, earning praise for being "charismatic" and a "fine verse speaker".^[8][9] In 2009, Edun became only the second black actor to play Romeo at the Globe Theatre when he was cast in Dominic Dromgoole's production of Romeo and Juliet.^[5] He also appeared in Slaves, a play by Rex Obano.^[5]

Edun has also appeared in several television shows. In 2009, he appeared in an episode of The Fixer, before a role in Law & Order: UK as a soldier returning from the war in Afghanistan.^[5] During series three of Merlin, Edun appeared as Elyan in three episodes, and was upgraded to a recurring character in series four. Elyan was killed off during the fifth and final series of Merlin in 2012. In 2011, he appeared in two episodes of The Hour as the character Sey, and reprised the role for three episodes in 2012. In 2015, Edun had a recurring role on the third season of Bates Motel as Marcus Young, a candidate for sheriff of White Pine Bay,^[10] which he followed with roles in Lucifer, Legends, and Death in Paradise. He also appeared as Mr Brocks in the 2016 Doctor Who Christmas Special. The following year, Edun portrayed a war criminal in an episode of Elementary.

Edun performed motion capture and voiced the role of Alex Hunter in the video game by EA Sports, FIFA 17, and reprised his role in the sequels FIFA 18 and FIFA 19.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2012	Dara Ju	Tunde Akande	Short film
2014	Dying of the Light	Mbui
2015	Cinderella	Trooper
2017	What Happened to Monday	Eddie	also known as Seven Sisters
	Banana Island Ghost	The boyfriend	Nigerian production
2018	In the Cloud	Theo Jones	[11]
	A Serial Killer's Guide to Life	Ben
	Where Hands Touch	American Soldier
2019	Honeymoon	Pete	Short film
2020	Eyimofe	Seyi
2021	Petra	Callum'	Short film
2024	Argylle	Deputy Nolan

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2009	The Fixer	Young Guy	Episode: "Episode #2.6" (2.6)
2010	Law & Order: UK	Lloyd Benson	Episode: "Shaken" (4.3)
2010–2012	Merlin	Sir Elyan	21 episodes
2011–2012	The Hour	Sey Ola	5 episodes
2015	Bates Motel	Marcus Young	4 episodes
	Lucifer	2Vile	Episode: "Pilot" (1.1)
	Legends	Manners	2 episodes
2016	Death in Paradise	Ellery Wallace	Episode: "One for the Road" (5.2)
	Doctor Who	Mr. Brock	Episode: "The Return of Doctor Mysterio" (10.0)
2017	Elementary	Akello Akeny	Episode: "Moving Targets" (5.22)
2018	A Discovery of Witches	Sean	3 episodes
2019	The Capture	Faisal	2 episodes
2020–2021	Trying	Luke	3 episodes
2022	Young Wallander	Samuel Osei	6 episodes
2023	The Chelsea Detective	Greg Milton-Elwes	Episode: "The Blue Room" (2.1)
2023	Trigger Point	Alex	4 episodes

Video games

Year	Game	Voice role	Notes
2016	FIFA 17	Alex Hunter	Also motion capture
2017	FIFA 18
2018	FIFA 19
2019	FIFA 20
2023	Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Director	Company	Notes
2009	Romeo and Juliet	Romeo		Shakespeare's Globe Theatre
2013	Lionboy	Charlie Ashanti		Annabel Arden's Production
2016	The Deep Blue Sea	Jackie Jackson		National Theatre
2018	Translations	Lieutenant Yolland		National Theatre

See also

• Black British nobility, Edun's class in Britain

References

1. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage 2003, vol. 3, p. 3063
2. Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage, 1995, ed. Patrick Montague-Smith, Debrett's Peerage Ltd, p. 986
3. Rajul, Amol (30 April 2009). "Adetomiwa Edun: A Romeo to die for". The Independent. Retrieved 18 March 2012.
4. Kwame Appiah's website URL= http://appiah.net/2009/04/30/my-nephew Date accessed= 20 October 2018
5. Gilbert, Gerard (7 November 2010). "Right on cue: Meet the new generation of hot young British actors taking the world by storm". The Independent. Archived from the original on 9 November 2010. Retrieved 18 March 2012.
6. "Adetomiwa Edun (m. 2002)". Christ's College, Cambridge. Archived from the original on 2 April 2012. Retrieved 18 March 2012.
7. "Adetomiwa Edun". Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Retrieved 18 March 2012.
8. Elkin, Susan (12 February 2009). "Macbeth". The Stage. Retrieved 18 March 2012.
9. Heart, Gwen (3 January 2010). "The incredible Romeo and he is... black". Sunday Observer. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 18 March 2012.
10. Remling, Amanda (13 April 2015). "'Bates Motel' Season 3 Spoilers: Norman Unravels In Episode 6; "Norma Louise" Gives New Look At "Psycho" [recap]". International Business Times. Retrieved 4 July 2017.
11. Spangler, Todd (20 September 2017). "Gabriel Byrne, Justin Chatwin Star in Crackle's VR-Themed Movie 'In the Cloud'". Variety. Retrieved 16 April 2018.

External links

• Adetomiwa Edun at IMDb