Editing Chadwick Boseman (section)

== Early Life and Education ==
Born and raised in Anderson, South Carolina, Boseman was the son of Carolyn (née Mattress), a nurse, and Leroy Boseman, a textile factory worker and upholstery businessman. DNA testing revealed his ancestral roots traced to the Jola people of Guinea-Bissau, Krio and Limba peoples of Sierra Leone, and Yoruba people of Nigeria.

Boseman graduated from T. L. Hanna High School in 1995, where he excelled in basketball and demonstrated early creative talent by writing and staging his first play, "Crossroads," following the death of a classmate. He was also accomplished in Speech and Debate, placing eighth in Original Oratory at the 1995 National Tournament.

Despite being recruited for college basketball, Boseman chose to pursue the arts at Howard University, graduating in 2000 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in directing. His mentor Phylicia Rashad helped secure funding from Denzel Washington for Boseman to attend the British American Drama Academy's Oxford Summer Program at Balliol College, Oxford. He later completed additional film studies at New York City's Digital Film Academy.