Magna Studios Signs Chiwetel Ejiofor CBE to Roster

Magna Studios has signed Chiwetel Ejiofor CBE, director, writer and award-winning actor to its commercial talent roster.

Chiwetel is a force in the film industry, having established himself as one of the most respected actors of his generation. He has taken lead roles in notable films such as the multi-award-winning 12 Years A Slave, for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor and received Academy Award, Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe Award nominations, as well as BAFTA-winning Love Actually, Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, Maleficent, Doctor Strange, American Gangster, Children of Men, Dirty Pretty Things and Amistad. Chiwetel is also known for his theatre work. Among many star turns on the stage, Chiwetel won Best Actor at the Olivier Awards for his seminal performance as Othello in Michael Grandage’s production for the Donmar Warehouse.

More recently, Chiwetel has emerged as a visionary film director. His critically acclaimed debut, The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind, has become one of Netflix’s most successful foreign language films of all time. Since then, he also directed and starred alongside Mary J Blige in Rob Peace which premiered at last year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Now, with Magna’s support, Chiwetel will use his film industry expertise to help direct fresh, original stories for the screen. He joins Magna’s exciting roster of emerging and established voices, including James Marsh, Steve McQueen, Oscar Hudson, Brady Corbet, Asif Kapadia and Phoebe Arnstein.

This follows the strengthening of Magna’s senior team with the appointment of Lewis Taylor as Head of Film, where he spearheads Magna’s scripted strategy, focusing on director-driven genre films and breakthrough debuts, as the studio also builds on its legacy of high-impact UK TV.

Commenting on the news, Davud Karbassioun, co-CEO of Magna Studios said, “Chiwetel is one of the most prolific actors of his generation, with that rare ability to move effortlessly between genres and make audiences laugh, cry, and everything in between. With The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind and Rob Peace, he’s shown he’s just as powerful in the director’s chair as he is in front of the camera. We want to help Chiwetel build on that, giving him more opportunities to tell new stories across different formats. We’re thrilled he’s chosen Magna to support him on this next chapter.”

Chiwetel added, “I’m thrilled to be joining the team at Magna. They’ve consistently shown a genuine commitment to balancing artistic vision with real-world production needs, and nurturing artists along the way. I'm delighted to be partnering with them and excited to collaborate creatively and practically on stories that are future facing, impactful and innovative.”