Edi Gathegi: From Eastlands to Hollywood
Edi Gathegi is one of Kenyans most successful Hollywood actors.
The award-winning actor grew up in Eastlands before the family relocated to the United States.
In a past interview, he revealed that the film industry respects hard work and the farther one goes is a matter of fate, chance, luck and God.
Here is his bio according to WoK.
Background and Education
Born on 10th March 1979, Edi Gathegi spent the early years of his life in Kenya before his family relocated to the United States. His father John Gathegi is a professor.
Edi’s dream was to become a pro athlete and he played basketball at the college level while at the University of California.
Unfortunately, he sustained an injury that saw him go into depression until he began taking an interest in acting.
He then attended New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and graduated in 2005.
Acting Career
Like many actors, he started with a theatre career and performed in several plays including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, Othello and Two Trains Running.
In 2006, he secured his first professional acting job in the film Crank.
The role was not an easy one as he featured as a Haitian cab driver and had to be coached on the accent by a friend.
The following year, he appeared as a guest on Lincoln Nights and Veronica Mars before going on to star in Death Sentence.
He secured other major roles in the Fifth Patient and Gone Baby Gone and the medical drama House. Then came his role as Laurent in the Twilight series.
Other productions he has featured on include CSI: Miami, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Atlas Shrugged, Fifth Season of Justified, and The Blacklist.
He has also appeared in Bleeding Heart, The Watcher, Princess of the Row, Caged, The Harder They Fall, Aporia, Nikita, Justified, and Proof.
On StartUp, he portrays the character of Ronald Dacey and in 2023, he was featured in DC Universe film Superman.
From 2022, till now, he has been playing Dev Ayesa in the production For All Mankind.
Prudence Minayo
Prudence Minayo Andayi is a Bachelor of Education Arts graduate (English Literature ) from Kenyatta University. She is a teacher of English Literature and a writer at whownskenya. She enjoys researching and writing impactful stories on wealth, influential personalities, technology, history among other topics. More from this author →
