Boris Frederic Cecil Tay-Natey Ofuatey-Kodjoe, professionally known as Boris Kodjoe, is a renowned German actor celebrated for his captivating performances in the 2000 film Love & Basketball and as sports-courier agent Damon Carter on the Showtime drama series Soul Food, which premiered in 2000.
Born in Vienna, Austria, Kodjoe is the son of Ursula, a German psychologist of partially-Jewish descent, and Eric Kodjoe, a Ghanaian physician who hails from the Nzema people. He was named after the esteemed Russian poet and writer Boris Pasternak.
Kodjoe's ancestry is marked by a significant Jewish heritage, as his great-grandmother was Jewish and tragically perished in the Holocaust. However, his maternal grandmother miraculously survived the war by hiding. Kodjoe's parents divorced when he was just six years old.
As a polyglot, Kodjoe is proficient in German, English, and French, and has a working knowledge of Spanish. He is the eldest of four siblings, including a brother named Patrick and two sisters named Nadja and Lara.
