Boris Frederic Cecil Tay-Natey Ofuatey-Kodjoe

Boris Frederic Cecil Tay-Natey Ofuatey-Kodjoe (born 8 March 1973), better known as Boris Kodjoe, is an actor and former fashion model. He is perhaps best known for his role as courier-turned-sports agent Damon Carter on the Showtime television drama series Soul Food.

Early life

Kodjoe was born in Vienna, Austria, the son of Ursula, a German psychologist, and Eric Kodjoe, a Ghanaian physician. His namesake is Nobel Prize-winning Russian poet and writer Boris Pasternak. He was born Jewish through his mother and maternal grandmother, though Kodjoe and his wife are members of Cascade United Methodist Church in Atlanta, Georgia.
Kodjoe's parents divorced when he was six years old and he grew up in the vicinity of Freiburg im Breisgau. He is fluent in German, French, English and Spanish. He has a brother named Patrick and a sister named Nadja. Kodjoe aspired to be a professional tennis player and attended Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, where he played tennis for the Rams.^{[citation needed]} His brother Patrick played for VCU's basketball team. A back injury ended Boris' tennis aspirations, but he was quickly signed as a model and soon after entered acting.^{[citation needed]}

Career

Named one of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" by People magazine in 2002, Kodjoe is perhaps best known as one of the seven regular cast members from the Showtime drama Soul Food, which aired from 2000 to 2004. He appeared in the 2002 film Brown Sugar and starred in the short-lived sitcom Second Time Around with his Soul Food co-star Nicole Ari Parker, whom he eventually married. He played the role of David Taylor, the wayward son of Pastor Fred Taylor in the October 2005 film The Gospel. He performed in a play called Whatever She Wants starring Vivica A. Fox and made an appearance on the fifth season of Nip/Tuck. His most recent role was in the 2009 science fiction film Surrogates. On Dec. 16, 2009, it was announced that Kodjoe had been cast as the male lead, Steven, in the J.J. Abrams series "Undercovers," in development at NBC.

Personal life

Boris married his Soul Food: The Series co-star Nicole Ari Parker on May 21, 2005 in Gundelfingen, Germany. She gave birth to their first child, a girl, Sophie Tei-Naaki Lee Kodjoe, on March 5, 2005. Sophie has spinal bifida, which was diagnosed at birth. Parker gave birth to the couple's second child, a boy, Nicolas Neruda Kodjoe, on October 31, 2006. The family resides in Atlanta, Georgia after moving from Los Angeles, California.
Kodjoe's height is 6 ft 2½ in (1.89 m).