Biography

Paapa Kwaakye Essiedu (/ˈpɑːpə ˌɛsiˈeɪduː/) (born 1990) is a British actor. He started his career in 2012 when he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, acting in numerous productions, including The Merry Wives of Windsor (2012), King Lear (2014), Hamlet (2016), and Romeo and Juliet (2016).  His breakthrough came with his role in the HBO miniseries I May Destroy You (2020), which earned nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award and British Academy Television Award. He portrayed George Boleyn in the Channel 5 miniseries Anne Boleyn (2021). He had starring roles in the AMC+action series Gangs of London (2020–2022), the science fiction series The Lazarus Project (2020–2023), and Black Mirror: Demon 79 (2023). Essiedu debuted his feature film acting as a policeman in Kenneth Branagh's mystery film Murder on the Orient Express (2017). He took roles in the horror film Men (2022), the fantasy film Genie (2023), and the drama The Outrun (2024). He gained acclaim for his stage roles in Caryl Churchill's play A Number (2022) and Lucy Prebble's play The Effect (2023–2024). In 2025, it was announced that Essiedu would play Professor Severus Snape in HBO's Harry Potter television series. Description above from the Wikipedia article Paapa Essiedu, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.