His friends call him chewy—we call him an actor you need to know

Chiwetel Ejiofor’s name is tricky, but not as difficult as you might think. Just say it with us: Chew–it–tell Edge–oh–four. Got it? Good, because you’re going to need to know it soon.

The British actor has been spotted as Watergate security guard Frank Wills in She Hate Me, Keira Knightley’s husband in Love Actually and a freed slave in Amistad. Most memorably, Ejiofor delivered a star turn as Okwe, a London cab driver from Nigeria in 2002’s Dirty Pretty Things, a highly slept–on immigration drama.

Though he was the centerpiece of that flick, you wouldn’t know it from the advertising, which prominently features costar Audrey Tautou’s mug. But that’s the life of the chameleonic 28–year–old; when someone’s this good, it’s hard to recognize that it’s the same person from film to film.

“The first thing that I look for in a script is the challenges of the character—that’s what interests me,” Ejiofor says. With meaty roles in a range of new films—including Woody Allen’s Melinda And Melinda, John Singleton’s revenge thriller Four Brothers and Joss Whedon’s sci–fi flick Serenity—Chiwetel (Chewy to his pals, but hold the Star Wars jokes) is certainly sticking to his philosophy. But enough about art—what about fame?

“Getting recognized always cracks me up,” he says. “There were some people moving some stuff in my apartment yesterday and they got pretty animated about the fact that I’ve kissed Keira Knightley.” There are worse things in the world to be known for, that’s for sure.—Sean Fennessey

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