Happy Friday everyone! This Friday we are going to highlight the actor known as Boris Kodjoe! He is of Ghanaian and German descent and was born on March 8, 1973 in Vienna, Austria. He played tennis on a scholarship at Virginia Commonwealth University and graduated in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in marketing.
After an injury while playing tennis in college, Boris Kodjoe modeled for a time, shortly before entering the acting world. Kodjoe has an extensive list of television shows and films he has been in since 1998. Among the most notable are, Brown Sugar (2002), Soul Food (2000-2004), Love & Basketball (2000), Real Husbands of Hollywood (2013-2016) and the spin off of Grey’s Anatomy: Station 19 (2018-present) , which recently concluded its sixth season just yesterday.
Throughout his career, Kodjoe has been nominated for several awards. He has been nominated for NAACP Image Awards six times for “Outstanding Supporting Actor” in a Drama Series, Motion Picture or Comedy Series. He was nominated for his work in the drama series Soul Food in 2002, 2003 and 2004. He was also nominated in 2003 for his role in the motion picture Brown Sugar. Finally, he was nominated in 2014 and 2015 for his work in the comedy series Real Husbands of Hollywood. Kodjoe also received a Black Reel Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in A Killer Among Us.
Boris Kodjoe met his wife Nicole Ari Parker on the set of Soul Food and the TV couple fell in love (in real life!) and married in 2005. Together they have two children Sophie, 18, and Nicholas, 16. Sophie was born with spina bifida, a spinal cord birth defect. Boris and Nicole founded Sophie’s Voice, later changed to the Kodjoe Family Foundation, to raise awareness and advocate prevention of neural tube birth defects. The foundation’s mission is to support the health and wellness of multicultural communities around the world.
Madelyn Rempel
Project RACE Teens, President
Photo Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Kodjoe