Soul Food's Ghanaian star

His mother is German and his father is from Ghana, West Africa. The Co-Star of Showtime?s Original Series ?SOUL FOOD?. He guest starred on such sitcoms as ?Steve Harvey? and ?For your Love?, and he can be seen in the Spike Lee produced feature film ?Love and Basketball?. You bet, you didn?t know that this star is a Ghanaian. Yours truly brings you closer to yet another great Ghanaian star who is making it big abroad.

Vital Stats
Born: March 8, 1973 in Vienna, Austria
Height: 6?3"
Marital Status: Single
Hometown: Freiburg, Germany
Parents: Ursula Kodjoe, psychologist from Germany
Eric Kodjoe, physician from Ghana, West Africa
Siblings: One brother - Patrick - and a sister - Nadja

It had once seemed likely that Boris Kodjoe would become a professional tennis player. However, after graduating in 1996 from Virginia Commonwealth University on a tennis scholarship, Boris found that chronic back problems would force him to find another dream. Destiny intervened, by a chance encounter with a scout from the prestigious Ford

Modeling agency in New York. Before long, Boris had joined the Ford agency and was soon propelled into the upper stratosphere of the male Supermodel. Within the first seven months of his modeling career, Boris landed twelve campaigns, including Versace, Ralph Lauren, Yves Saint Laurent, and Gap, and worked with some of the top names in photography, including Bruce Weber, Matthew Rolston, and Herb Ritts. But modeling was not to be the final frontier for Boris. Hollywood soon took notice and Boris made his acting debut in the Spike Lee produced feature Love & Basketball. Since that time, he?s also guest starred on such sitcoms as Steve Harvey and For Your Love.

Currently, Boris can be seen in Showtime?s original series Soul Food, which shoots on location in Toronto and shown on a TV near you courtesy mobile service providers, Scancom.

He plays the part of Damon; a role that was originally scheduled for three episodes, but soon became a full-time part after producers saw what he brought to the show.

Soul Food is one of this season?s hits, raking in recordbreaking ratings. So what else will Boris take on? He writes, speaks to students about cultural diversity and tolerance, and speaks four languages fluently - so the possibilities are endless. But for now, he?ll work on growing as an actor.

What are his priorities: The well being of my loved ones is number one on my list. The contact and communication with my family and friends is very important to me. My own health and happiness comes next. I have to love myself to love others. I try utilizing my blessings to help others, to motivate them and to teach them how to reach their goals. At the same time I want to grow and learn, and work hard every day to make my own dreams come true.
Future Plans
A very important phase in my life has come to an end. I finished shooting Soul Food and I?m now moving on to do films. Soul Food is my family. It has been my education, my growing up, and my becoming an actor. I love my family and I?ll always be there for them like they have been there for me. They gave me so much, took me in and raised me. I?m so thankful. But there comes a time when you have to spread your wings and fly. This time is exciting and a little scary at the same time. All I can do is be prepared and ready to take advantage of my opportunities. I believe that with preparation and a positive outlook on things anything is possible. I just completed an arc on the FOX TV-show ?Boston Public? and I?m getting ready for my next feature film endeavor. There?s a big world out there with lots of space for everybody to play. I think I found my space.
Interview
What was it that made you decide to do Soul Food?

I wanted to be in a situation where I could learn and grow on a daily basis. Soul food was particularly very attractive to me, because the producers and creators of the show were very keen on writing honest and true stories for the family. I knew that it wasn?t going to be cheesy or over the top, I knew it was going to be true and honest and I love that about it.

Are you like your character Damon?

In certain ways I am very much like Damon. He?s a very sensitive and warm-hearted person. He loves to take care of a woman and he knows how to treat people well. He?s in touch with himself. He?s not the sort that settles. For him it?s just a matter of figuring out what is close to his heart?and that?s very close to where I am.

So, your character is involved with an older woman, how do you feel about that?

You know what, it?s not an issue at all. Age is not an issue, the only reason it becomes an issue in the show, is because it is an issue for society. He loves her because of the person she is and what she represents as a woman to him, and that has nothing to do with her age, I mean she?s mature and she?s ambitious and she is very well educated and those things appeal to him.

So tell me about the romantic scenes, are they hard to do?

Actually the first episode was very risqu? because we met in her office, and I took her out for a date, and she comes over and we pretty much jump in the sack. The scene was very very very hot.

Everybody wrote in and talked because people aren?t used to, a black couple make love. They are used to seeing black actors portray sort of you know having sex, and not really expressing love. It was actually a milestone to see that in such an erotic and romantic way.

Were you shy when you did that?

Yeah, first time especially because I had never done it before. I hadn?t known Nicole (Ari Parker, who plays Teri) for a long time. We didn?t rehearse that scene, because since it was supposed to be the first time we kissed and the first time we were affectionate, we wanted to leave it that way. We wanted to be true to that, and I was shy. Romance, or sex, or intimacy is very private to me, so it was quite challenging to me to overcome all that and basically make it look real.

People are outspoken about you and Teri, both to stay with Teri, and also to let her go?how do you feel?

It?s fascinating to read that and I love how people respond to the show because they think it is so real. Of course I know what is going to happen, because I have the script, so I?m biased, you know what I mean? The only thing I can say is that I hope that the writers continue to go in the direction of Damon and Teri making their relationship deeper.

Have you seen people react to the show?

When people watch the show, they cringe you know what I mean? They scream, it?s really amazing to see that?we watch the show together once a week when everybody?s here in this restaurant and it?s really amazing to see people watch the show, and totally live every moment and absolutely take it as the truth, and they aren?t interested the actors that are sitting next to them they are absolutely focused on the screen and what is happening?and they come up to you on the street in the airport in new York or whatever and they give you advice and tell you about their families, and how the show has touched them and it?s so amazing being able to touch such a mass of people in such an positive way, and that is what really touched me just the fact that I?m able to reach out to such a great amount of people and have fun doing it at the same time.

What makes people connect with this show?

I think that the bottom line is that every person on the planet can relate you know. It doesn?t matter if you are white, black, yellow, green, or blue, whatever. Every person on the planet is somehow tied to a family situation. Everybody can identify with at least one person on the show. People can relate with the relationships and how we portray them. That?s what makes the story so real, little things, little arguments, little moments, it might be nonverbal, but they are so real, and so intense.

How do you feel about the large response from the audience about your character?

It makes me feel good, because I?ve studied for a long time and I worked really hard to get to the point where I am accepted as an actor. I don?t believe there is a transition between modeling and acting. They are two different things, so for me, it was a new beginning and that?s why I put such a great effort in it because I wanted to do it right.

Since this show is about a family, how is the relationship between actors?

Not only is the cast is good but full of cool people; we just immediately bonded and formed a synergy that allowed us to create art in a circle of friends. That is a great position to be in. You don?t usually get that; you usually get a lot of egos. We don?t have that sort of stuff, we?re family, and that makes it enjoyable.

Were you afraid that Soul Food the series would be compared to the movie?

Well, I knew the TV show was based loosely on the movie, and that meant that there were certain characters that had been establish before hand, and the challenge for us was to overcome that stigma of recreating something that has been done before. ?it was like, we had to start from scratch, the only thing that connected us from the movie, is that the show started where the movie ended. Everything else was a new creation. We have recordbreaking ratings, so I think we?ve accomplished that.

One last thing, you?re a pretty good tennis player in real life, when is Damon going to show his tennis skills?

No actually that is the only thing that they haven?t touched upon in my real life. They have him speaking German and French and they brought in my brother, but they haven?t touched on my tennis skills yet, but who knows the writers are very skilled at applying personal things to the characters, so I wouldn?t be surprised it the audience sees some tennis sooner or later.

I don?t know about you, but I can?t wait to see Boris in some short white tennis shorts!