Dowmovwa Sherman: According to showbiz.com, the British actor born of African parents (Elba’s mother was from Ghana and his father from Sierra Leon) married fellow African actress Dormowa Sherman of Liberia in 1997, and together they had one daughter, Isan. Elba said the marriage dissolved when he could not find work and ended up homeless for about two months.
“I was going through a really tough time some years ago,” he told Britain’s Now magazine. “I couldn’t get an acting job and my marriage was in a horrible place, so I ended up homeless. I slept rough in my brown Chevrolet Astro van for eight weeks.”