Michael B. Jordan is now an Oscar-winning actor thanks to his role in Sinners, but he’s been putting in the work for decades.
The 39-year-old actor got his start in 1999 when he was just 11 years old. His first credited onscreen appearance was in an episode of The Sopranos, several years before he delivered a memorable performance as the young drug dealer Wallace on The Wire. In the episode of the HBO series—Season 1 Episode 7, to be precise—Jordan played a young teen in a flashback of the lead character, Tony Soprano.
That same year, he also had a small appearance on Cosby.
His first movie credit was 1999’s Black and White, but his first substantial movie role came in 2001 with Hardball, which came out when he was 13 years old. In the movie, he starred opposite Keanu Reeves.
But one of the roles that truly put him on the map, before he starred in Friday Night Lights and Fruitvale Station, was his portrayal of Wallace on The Wire. The young Jordan delivered an impactful recurring role in the character, who attempted to leave the drug trade only to become the target of the villainous drug kingpin Stringer Bell, who was portrayed by Idris Elba in his breakthrough role.
In the years that followed, Jordan had a recurring role on the long-running ABC sitcom All My Children as Reggie Porter Montgomery, and appeared in episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Bones, and Burn Notice. After several TV series, including his main role in the final two seasons of the high school football drama Friday Night Lights, he cemented himself as a movie star with Fruitvale Station, and he’s appeared in every movie directed by Ryan Coogler since.
The two have cemented themselves as one of Hollywood’s greatest partnerships, working together on five movies. They teamed up again for Creed and Black Panther, and Jordan had a brief cameo appearance in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. But his Oscar-winning dual performance as identical twins Smoke and Stack in Sinners offered the best showcase of how much of a movie star he’s become since making his acting debut decades ago.
Check out what people are saying about seeing Jordan grow up on screen below.