Idris Elba and Mo Abudu Partner To Prioritize African Storytelling

The Luther star and African media mogul are collaborating and nurturing emerging creators to tell the stories of Africa and its diaspora.

Industry veteran Idris Elba is partnering with Nigeria media multi-hyphenate Mo Abudu to launch a TV and film venture set to “empower and uplift talent from Africa and the Diaspora,” as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

For the first of its kind initiative in Africa, Elba’s Green Door Pictures production house melds with Abudu’s EbonyLife Media to develop a robust slate of TV and film projects that feature Afrocentric storytelling set in the continent for its Diaspora.

“I have always been passionate about using my platform to make a positive impact,” Elba said in a statement, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “By partnering with Mo, we aim to offer free, world-class industry education to the next generation of storytellers and bring their authentic voices to the forefront. This partnership is a step toward creating a more inclusive and diverse media landscape, one that represents the voices and experiences of Africa and its Diaspora around the world.”

Elba’s Green Door has a host of credits in Netflix’s Luther film, Netflix’s Concrete Cowboy, My Dad and Me, BBC’s Idris Elba’s Fight School, and Sky’s In the Long Run. Its collaboration with EbonyLife — which flaunts deals with Netflix, Sony Pictures and Westbrook Studios — envisions the replication of their own blueprints but with an expansive bandwidth.

The co-production is looking to use EbonyLife’s Creative Academy in Lagos, Nigeria as the standard to create comparable programs across the vast continent. With cultivation at the fore of the program, novel education and mentoring institutes will emerge to inspire both the exiled and new generation of creativity. Graduates of the program would be granted with the momentum to excel in a rigorous industry and circumvent diversity-based obstacles.

“It’s our mission to offer the best in industry education, mentorship, and production opportunities, so that our graduates can become valuable contributors to the global media landscape,” said Abudu. “We plan to hit the ground running and explore the very best that African and Black stories have to offer global audiences.”

As for Green Door, this partnership is only the latest in their fleet of projects. In 2021, Elba inked a multi-year joint deal with BAFTA-nominated producer Kris Thykier’s Archery Pictures on film and TV projects. The alliance is a projected accelerator to catalyze Green Door’s rapid growth.