Damson Idris (birthname:
Adamson Alade-Bo Idris) is a rising young British actor of Nigerian parentage who had his breakout role in John Singleton’s FX series, Snowfall (2017-2023) and launched his big-screen career in the cast of the British crime thriller,
City of Tiny Lights (2016), based on screenwriter Patrick Neale’s 2005 novel and co-starring
Riz Ahmed, Cush Jumbo, James Floyd and Billie Piper, and released by Icon Film Distribution after premiering at the Toronto Film Festival.
Idris played a supporting role in his first American movie, the military biopic
Megan Leavey (2017), starring Kate Mara, Ramon Rodriguez, Tom Felton, Bradley Whitford, Will Patton, Common, and Edie Falco under Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s direction and grossing $14.5 million for distributor Bleecker Street.
Idris took on another supporting role in the Liam Neeson-starring thriller,
The Commuter (2018), with
Vera Farmiga,
Patrick Wilson, Jonathan Banks, and Sam Neill under
Jaume Collet-Serra’s direction, and released by Lionsgate (U.S.)/StudioCanal (international) to a robust $120 million return. Idris joined the cast of director/co-writer/producer Chris Mul’s horror movie,
Astral (2018), with Frank Dillane, Vanessa Grasse and Trevor White, and released by Vertical Entertainment, and then Idris had his first starring big-screen role in director/writer Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s Nigeria and London-based autobiographical drama,
Farming (2018), co-starring Kate Beckinsale, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and John Dagleish, and released by Lionsgate and Lionsgate UK after premiering at the Toronto Film Festival.
Damson Idris co-starred opposite Brad Pitt in his first Hollywood studio movie, director/story writer/producer Joseph Kosinski’s $200-million-budgeted movie for Warner Bros. and Apple Original Films,
F1: The Movie (2025), set during the Formula One World Championship and featuring
Kerry Condon, Tobias Menzies, Javier Bardem and Shea Whigham.
Idris joined the starry cast of Paramount Pictures’ big-screen version of Nigerian American novelist Tomi Adeyemi’s Afrofantasy book,
Children of Blood and Bone (2027), co-starring Thuso Mbedu, Tosin Cole, Amandla Stenberg,
Lashana Lynch,
Idris Elba, Chiwetel Ejiofor,
Cynthia Erivo,
Viola Davis, and Regina King, under Gina Prince-Bythewood’s direction.
Idris was cast as jazz maestro Miles Davis in the 1949 Paris-set romantic drama,
Miles & Juliette (date to be announced), co-starring Anamaria Vartolomei, directed and produced by
Bill Pohlad, written by Zora Howard, and produced by Mick Jagger and Victoria Pearman.