John Boyega, British-Nigerian actor, has denied assaulting Toke Makinwa, a popular media personality, in December 2017.
The outspoken media personality had condemned the management of Crossroads restaurant, for watching fruitlessly while she was being bullied by the bodyguard of the famous actor.
The radio presenter recounted on her social media page how she was assaulted and intimidated by Boyega’s bodyguard while she visited the restaurant.
Reacting to the claim, he said:”I did not kick anyone out of the bar. First of all, who is that?” he said in an interview on Cool FM.
“I’m from London. I don’t know. I’m sure if I know the person is, I’d have known who she is.
“I’ve never had a bodyguard in Nigeria. I don’t roll with bodyguards. When I came in December, I came on holiday.”
Boyega trained at the Identity School of Acting in Hackney and appeared in Six Parties at the National Theatre and Category B at the Tricycle Theatre prior to being offered a role in the 2011 film Attack the Block.
In September 2011, HBO announced that Boyega had been cast in the boxing drama pilot Da Brick, loosely based on Mike Tyson’s life.
Boyega was expected to play Donnie, who is released from a juvenile detention centre on his 18th birthday and begins to examine what it means to be a man. The pilot was written by John Ridley, but was not picked up by HBO. Also in 2011, he acted in the film Junkhearts in which he portrayed Jamal, a drug dealer who finds some guns and tries to sell them.
Boyega was chosen by Fionnuala Halligan of Screen International as one of the “UK Stars of Tomorrow 2011” and appeared alongside two other actors on the front cover of that magazine in its July 2011 edition.
In March 2012, Boyega was cast in the film adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s book Half of a Yellow Sun.