Deobia Oparei

Deobia Oparei was born in London, England, on December 7, 1971. His career in entertainment began in theatre, with early work at The Royal Shakespeare Company and The National Youth Theatre. Oparei made his film debut with a supporting role in “Alien 3” in 1992. He later gained recognition for his portrayal of ‘Le Chocolat’ in Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 film “Moulin Rouge!”. Oparei also expanded his creative work into writing, authoring the play “Crazyblackmuthafuckin’self,” which premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in 2002.

His career advanced with roles in various cinematic projects, including “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” (2011) and “Dredd” (2012). Oparei joined the cast of the HBO series “Game of Thrones” in 2015 for its fifth season, playing the character Areo Hotah across six episodes until 2016. Following this, he appeared in “Independence Day: Resurgence” (2016) and as Loki Hayes in the TV series “Santa Clarita Diet” (2017).

More recently, Oparei has been featured in “Jumanji: The Next Level” (2019) and Tim Burton’s “Dumbo” (2019). He also took on the role of Mr. Effiong in the Netflix series “Sex Education” (2019). A significant milestone in his career includes his appearance as Boastful Loki in Marvel’s “Loki” in 2021, and most recently, in “The Gray Man” in 2022. Oparei has also ventured into filmmaking, directing and writing his debut short film, “Giants” (2022).