Michael Bakari Jordan was born on February 9, 1987 in Santa Ana, California. He has been considered as one of the best actors of this past decade. He was raised by his parents, Donna and Michael A. Jordan. He has two siblings, older sister Jamila Jordan and younger brother Khalid Jordan. The Jordan family spent two years in California before moving to Newark, New Jersey. He received his education from Newark High School. He began his career as a professional actor in 1999.
In 2001, he gained his first notable film role as a co-star in Hardball. In 2002, he gained more attention for his small but pivotal role on the first season of HBO’s The Wire and became a reoccurring character on other television shows. In 2012, he appeared in more mainstream films such as Red Tails and Chronicle. In 2013, his career hit a breakthrough from starring in films such as Fruitvale Station playing shooting victim Oscar Grant, 2015’s Rocky sequel film Creed playing Adonis Creed, and 2018’s Black Panther playing Erik Killmonger. In 2019, he starred in the leading role as Bryan Stevenson in the biopic film, Just Mercy.
Jordan will once again team up with director, Ryan Coogler, on a future project entitled Wrong Answer based on the Atlanta Public School’s cheating scandal which will be released in 2021.