# DeObia Oparei

DeObia Oparei (born 7 December 1971) is a British actor. They 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).

## Early life

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

## Career

Oparei began their career working for various British theatre companies, like The Royal Shakespeare Company and The National Youth Theatre. 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, where they co-hosted the regular night 'Magic' upstairs at Kinselas with Basil, and performed Operai's Queen bitch rap in cLUB bENT at The Performance Space, with Darren Spowart and Matthew Bergin.
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". 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.
In 2015, Oparei joined the cast of the HBO epic fantasy series Game of Thrones in its fifth season, portraying the character Areo Hotah. 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.

## 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 | |
| 2002 | The Four Feathers | Idris-Es-Saier | |
| 2003 | The Foreigner | Richard | |
| 2004 | Thunderbirds | Mullion | |
| 2005 | 7 Seconds | Spanky | Direct-to-video; Credited as Dhobi Oparei |
| 2005 | Doom | Sergeant Gannon "Destroyer" Roark | |
| 2009 | Thick as Thieves | Rawls | |
| 2009 | Green Street 2: Stand Your Ground | Derrick Jackson | Direct-to-video |
| 2010 | Mr. Nice | Tee Bone Taylor | |
| 2010 | Death Race 2 | Big Bill | |
| 2010 | The Presence | Woodsman | |
| 2011 | Your Highness | Thundarian | |
| 2011 | 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 | |
| 2019 | 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 | |
| 1990 | Desmond's | Willy | Episode: "Auntie Susu" |
| 1990 | Medics | King | Episode: "Iraj" |
| 1992 | Between the Lines | Ruby | Episode: "Nothing Personal" |
| 1993 | Minder | Winston | Episode: "Cars and Pints and Pains" |
| 1998 | Wildside | Bernice | |
| 1998 | 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" |
| 2017 | Santa Clarita Diet | Loki Hayes | 2 episodes |
| 2017 | 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