One director, five films: how Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan built each other
Michael B. Jordan was a former child model from Newark with a small but unforgettable part in The Wire. Then a young director cast him as Oscar Grant. Their partnership ran through Creed and Black Panther to Sinners, where playing twin brothers won Jordan the Oscar for Best Actor.
Jordan was born in Santa Ana, California, on February 9, 1987, but the family moved to Newark, New Jersey, when he was two. He went to Newark Arts High School, where his mother taught, played basketball, and modelled for brands such as Toys R Us before turning to acting. His professional debut came in 1999 with brief appearances on Cosby and The Sopranos, and in 2002 he played Wallace, a minor yet pivotal figure in the first season of The Wire.
Television kept him working through the next decade. He took over the part of Reggie Montgomery on All My Children from Chadwick Boseman in 2003, then spent two seasons as quarterback Vince Howard on Friday Night Lights, living in Austin where it was shot. The film Chronicle in 2012 gave him a lead as one of three teenagers who gain superpowers.
Everything shifted in 2013 with Fruitvale Station, Coogler's film about the shooting victim Oscar Grant. One Hollywood Reporter critic compared him to a young Denzel Washington, and Time listed director and star among 30 people under 30 changing the world. A misstep followed when Fantastic Four scored just 9 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, but the same year Creed cast him as Apollo Creed's son. He trained for a year on a strict low-fat diet and fought his scenes without a body double.
As Erik Killmonger in Black Panther in 2018 he stole scenes, and the role affected him enough that he went to therapy afterwards. He made his directing debut on Creed III in 2023, and in 2025 Sinners earned him both the Academy Award and the Actor Award for Best Actor, making him the seventh Black performer to win the lead acting Oscar. A fifth Coogler project, about the Atlanta schools cheating scandal, is planned.
Source: Michael B. Jordan
