DeObia Oparei

DeObia Oparei (born 7 December 1971) is a British actor. They^[1] are best known for their roles as the Gunner in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011), Rongo in Dumbo (2019), Loki Hayes in Santa Clarita Diet (2017), and Boastful Loki in Loki (2021).

DeObia Oparei
Born	(1971-12-07) 7 December 1971 (age 53) Hackney, London, England
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1992–present

Early life

Oparei was born on 7 December 1971 in Hackney, London, to parents of Nigerian ancestry.^[2]

Career

Oparei began their career working for various British theatre companies, like The Royal Shakespeare Company and The National Youth Theatre.^[3] Oparei's film debut was a small supporting role in Alien 3. After playing the lead role of American playwright John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation, Oparei scored their next supporting film role, as "Le Chocolat", in the Baz Luhrmann film Moulin Rouge!. In 1993, they appeared in an episode of the popular British television series Minder as 'Winston', a worker for Arthur Daley.

Operai moved to Sydney, Australia in 1995,^[4] where they co-hosted the regular night 'Magic' upstairs at Kinselas with Basil,^[5] and performed Operai's Queen bitch rap in cLUB bENT at The Performance Space, with Darren Spowart and Matthew Bergin.^[6]

Oparei is also a playwright. their first play, Crazyblackmuthafuckin'self, a dramedy about race, sexuality and identity, opened to critical acclaim at the Royal Court Theatre in 2002. The Guardian's Michael Billington described the play as "wild, raunchy and funny".^[7] The play later toured to Sydney, Australia, as part of the 2003 Company B Belvoir International Playreading Series, at the Belvoir Street Downstairs Theatre, on 11 August 2003.^[8]

In 2015, Oparei joined the cast of the HBO epic fantasy series Game of Thrones in its fifth season, portraying the character Areo Hotah.^[9] In 2017, they joined the cast of Santa Clarita Diet as Loki Hayes, and in 2019 joined the cast of Loki (2019) as Boastful Loki, the latter role in reference to the former.

Personal life

On 5 June 2020, they came out as gay on Instagram.^[10]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	Alien 3	Arthur
1998	Dark City	Train Passenger
2001	Moulin Rouge!	Le Chocolat
2002	Dirty Pretty Things	Mini-Cab Driver
	The Four Feathers	Idris-Es-Saier
2003	The Foreigner	Richard
2004	Thunderbirds	Mullion
2005	7 Seconds	Spanky	Direct-to-video; Credited as Dhobi Oparei
	Doom	Sergeant Gannon "Destroyer" Roark
2009	Thick as Thieves	Rawls
	Green Street 2: Stand Your Ground	Derrick Jackson	Direct-to-video
2010	Mr. Nice	Tee Bone Taylor
	Death Race 2	Big Bill
	The Presence	Woodsman
2011	Your Highness	Thundarian
	Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides	Gunner
2012	Dredd	TJ the Paramedic
2013	Tula: The Revolt	Hacha
2016	Independence Day: Resurgence	Dikembe Umbutu
2019	Dumbo	Rongo
	Jumanji: The Next Level	Gromm	Credited as Deobia Oparei
2021	Wrath of Man	Brad
2022	The Gray Man	Dulin

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1990	Blood Rights	Winston
	Desmond's	Willy	Episode: "Auntie Susu"
	Medics	King	Episode: "Iraj"
1992	Between the Lines	Ruby	Episode: "Nothing Personal"
1993	Minder	Winston	Episode: "Cars and Pints and Pains"
1998	Wildside	Bernice
	Trial & Retribution	DC Palmer
2002	Holby City	Dave Whellan	Episode: "Hearts and Minds"
2015	Proof	Mr. Oumandi	2 episodes
2015–2016	Game of Thrones	Areo Hotah	6 episodes
2017	Emerald City	Sullivan	Episode: "Mistress - New - Mistress"
	Santa Clarita Diet	Loki Hayes	2 episodes
	The Orville	Captain Vorak	Episode: "About a Girl"
2019	Sex Education	Mr. Effiong
2021	Loki	Boastful Loki	Episodes: "The Nexus Event" and "Journey into Mystery"

Shorts

• 2015: Clones

Synchronisations

• 2009: League of Legends
• 2018: World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth