Chadwick Boseman ✝

Chadwick Aaron Boseman (born November 29, 1977) is an American actor known for his portrayals of real-life historical figures such as Jackie Robinson in 42 (2013), James Brown in Get on Up (2014) and Thurgood Marshall in Marshall (2017) and for his portrayal of the superhero Black Panther in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Captain America: Civil War (2016), Black Panther (2018), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and the upcoming Avengers 4 (2019). Boseman has also had roles in the television series Lincoln Heights (2008) and Persons Unknown (2010) and the films The Express (2008), Draft Day (2014) and Message from the King (2016).\n', ' Chadwick Boseman was born and raised in Anderson, South Carolina, to Carolyn and Leroy Boseman, both African American. According to Boseman, DNA testing has indicated that his ancestors were Yoruba people from Nigeria and Limba people from Sierra Leone. His mother was a nurse and his father worked at a textile factory, keeping an upholstery business as well. Boseman graduated from T. L. Hanna High School in 1995. In his junior year, he wrote his first play, Crossroads, and staged it at the school after a classmate was shot and killed. He attended college at Howard University in Washington, DC, graduating in 2000 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in directing. One of his teachers was Phylicia Rashad, who became a mentor. She helped raise funds so that Boseman and some classmates could attend the Oxford Mid-Summer Program of the British American Drama Academy in London, to which they had been accepted.\n', ' Boseman wanted to write and direct, and initially began studying acting to learn how to relate to actors. After he returned to the US, he graduated from New York City\'s Digital Film Academy. He lived in Brooklyn at the start of his career. Boseman worked as the drama instructor in the Schomburg Junior Scholars Program, housed at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, New York. In 2008 he moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.\n', '