Babs Olusanmokun

Discipline on the Mat, Action on Set

Babs Olusanmokun is no ordinary method actor. He holds a third-degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and that physical training shapes the way he moves in front of the camera. Born in Lagos, Nigeria, he ended up building his base in New York. Before acting, he already knew the discipline of elite competition.

In 2004, he made his television debut in a small role on Law & Order: Criminal Intent. There were no fireworks and no calls from major studios. For a decade he built up credits on shows like The Unit and Blue Bloods without the general public remembering his name. But his angular face and deep voice began to carry weight in casting rooms across New York's independent film industry.

Technique comes before art.

In 2017, he appeared in the Black Museum episode of Black Mirror. He played Clayton, a condemned man whose consciousness is digitized to be tortured for eternity. His performance was an exercise in absolute restraint that caught the attention of casting directors for major franchises. From there, the scale of his projects changed dramatically.

The Weight of a Look in Arrakis

In 2021, Dune premiered under the direction of Denis Villeneuve. Olusanmokun played Jamis, the Fremen warrior who challenges Paul Atreides to a duel to the death. He filmed the fight sequence over several weeks in a real desert under extreme weather conditions. Although his character dies in that installment, his physical presence drove the growth of the protagonist's story.

Jamis was more than a rival; he was a recurring presence in the saga's mythology. The actor drew on his martial arts background to give the character an elegant brutality that didn't need lengthy dialogue. In 2022, he took on the role of Dr. Joseph M'Benga in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Here the register was the opposite: he traded aggression for a tense calm.

Sometimes the character is built from the back of the neck.

M'Benga is not your typical science fiction doctor. He is a veteran with a violent past, which Olusanmokun plays with long silences and a economy of gestures that is rare on commercial television. He signed a multi-year contract that gave him stability at Paramount+ while he kept exploring independent film.

Espionage and Technical Science Fiction

In 2024, he worked under Guy Ritchie on The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. He played Mr. Heron, an intelligence agent in Nazi-occupied Gambia during World War II. For this role, he drew on his language fluency and a cynical demeanor that contrasted with the explicit violence of the espionage plot. But his approach always avoided histrionics.

Filming for this action movie took place mainly in Turkey. Olusanmokun shared the screen with Henry Cavill and Alan Ritchson, bringing a note of sophistication to a cast dominated by brute force. His ability to speak several languages (including Yoruba and Portuguese) has helped him avoid the stereotypes that African actors often face in Hollywood.

Production on the third season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds set its shooting schedule in Toronto for 2024. The estimated budget per episode exceeded $10 million. The actor kept his residence in Brooklyn between shoots.