Hakeem Kae-Kazim
Hakeem Kae-Kazim is an actor, born 1962.
Nigerian-British and born in Lagos, Kae-Kazim made his name with Hotel Rwanda in 2004, playing Rutaganda, and has worked steadily on both sides of the Atlantic since. He won a SAFTA for Riding with Sugar in 2020, and he produced as well as starred in Man on Ground, which brought him two Africa Movie Academy Award nominations.
Casting directors hear command in the voice, and the credit list reads accordingly: Captain Jocard in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Admiral Wilcox in Godzilla vs. Kong, Captain John Keel in The Watch, Captain Dutse in Half of a Yellow Sun, the Prophet in Dominion. The blockbuster versions of that are usually a handful of scenes on a bridge or a deck, and they are not where the interesting work is.
The interesting work is in two places. One is Black Sails, where Mr. Scott is given several seasons to move from a servant in someone else's household to a man with his own power, and Kae-Kazim plays the transition without ever announcing it. The other is the African and independent films: Half of a Yellow Sun, Attack on Darfur, Hammarskjold, Santana. He also has a substantial voice career, from Krogan in Dragons: Race to the Edge to Baldr in Twilight of the Gods.
Movies (15)
- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)
- Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)
- Muzzle: City of Wolves (2025)
- The Fourth Kind (2009)
- Hotel Rwanda (2004)
- Black Beauty (2020)
- The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines (2006)
- 24 Hours to Live (2017)
- Vixen: The Movie (2017)
- Daylight's End (2016)
- Half of a Yellow Sun (2013)
- Attack on Darfur (2009)
- Hammarskjöld: Fight for Peace (2023)
- Santana (2020)
- Slipstream (2005)
TV (14)
- Love, Death & Robots (2019)
- Dragons: Race to the Edge (2015)
- Black Sails (2014)
- Ben 10: Alien Force (2008)
- Trial & Retribution (1997)
- Dominion (2014)
- My Dad the Bounty Hunter (2023)
- Twilight of the Gods (2024)
- Roots (2016)
- The Triangle (2005)
- King Solomon's Mines (2004)
- Deep State (2018)
- Testament: The Bible in Animation (1996)
- The Watch (2021)
Where to start with Hakeem Kae-Kazim
Hotel Rwanda remains the one to see first, because it is the performance the rest of the career was built on and because he plays a genuinely frightening man without any theatrical villainy.
Then Black Sails, which is the deepest role he has had. Mr. Scott is a quiet presence for a full season before the show reveals how much he has been managing, and the payoff only works because of how little the actor gives away early.
Half of a Yellow Sun is the pick of the African productions and the best companion piece to Hotel Rwanda. For the genre side, Love, Death & Robots uses his voice beautifully in a single short, Dragons: Race to the Edge gives him a proper recurring antagonist, and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and Godzilla vs. Kong are the big-budget cameos worth knowing about rather than seeking out.