Nnamdi Asomugha // ⓘ (/ˈnɑːmdi ˈɑːsəmwɑː/ NAHM-dee AH-sə-mwah; born July 6, 1981) is a Nigerian-American actor, producer and former professional football cornerback.

He played college football for the California Golden Bears, and was selected in the first round of the 2003 NFL draft by the Oakland Raiders.

[7][8][9] Asomugha received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Carl King in the film Crown Heights (2017).

After the season, Asomugha was invited to the Pro Bowl as an alternate but because of late notice he was not able to attend the annual all-star game.

One NFL scout told Pro Football Weekly that Asomugha was thrown at "less than any defender in the last ten years" in 2007.

[29] He finished the 2007 season with 34 tackles(32 solo), 1 interception and 7 breakups and was named a 2008 Pro Bowl alternate.

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said Asomugha is "as complete a cornerback as he has seen all year".

He received the Oakland Raiders "Commitment to Excellence" Award for the second time and was named the team's 2008 Co-Most Valuable Player along with running back Justin Fargas.

On February 19, 2009, the Raiders re-signed Asomugha to a complex three-year deal that made him the highest-paid defensive back in NFL history.

In the third year of the contract, if Oakland wanted to keep Asomugha, it had to pay him the average of the top five highest-paid cornerbacks or $16.875 million, whichever was higher.

If the Raiders failed to pick up the option, Asomugha became a free agent with Oakland not having the ability to tag him again.

[36] A team captain again in 2009 and the NFL's least targeted cornerback by an extremely wide margin, Asomugha was challenged by opposing quarterbacks only 27 times and allowed 13 completions the entire season.

After his performance against the Houston Texans, head coach Gary Kubiak said "Asomugha is the best (corner) I've seen in a while throughout this league.

In 2010, Asomugha was selected as a member of the Fox Sports's[38] and USA Today's NFL All-Decade Team.

While shadowing the opposing teams' top receiver most of the season, Asomugha was still targeted much less than any other cornerback in the NFL.

"[40] When facing the Arizona Cardinals, All-Pro wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald said "The thing you see on tape for a man of his size, he has incredible hips and amazingly quick feet, and that's just God given ability to be that tall and be able to move and cut and drive on balls the way he's able to.

[51] In 2016, Pro Football Focus named Asomugha the best Oakland Raiders player of the past decade.

He also co-wrote, produced and starred in a dramatic short film titled Double Negative alongside Australian actor Adam J. Yeend, which chronicled 48 hours in the life of a struggling Muslim American writer.

[55] Asomugha has appeared in Will Ferrell's comedy web series Funny or Die, the Roadside Attractions film Hello, My Name Is Doris and as a fictionalized version of himself in the Comedy Central television series Kroll Show, starring Nick Kroll.

[58] Crown Heights premiered in competition in the US Dramatic Category at the Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2017.

Through OWIN, Asomugha and his family provide food, shelter, medicine, vocational training, literacy efforts, and scholarships to widows and orphans victimized by poverty or abuse in Nigeria.

[70] Additionally, Asomugha distributes backpacks to the incoming freshmen each year at Narbonne High School in Los Angeles.

He also outfits the football and basketball team with shoes, a mandate he wrote into an endorsement contract he signed with Nike.

[84] Asomugha has a form of color-blindness called deuteranomaly and stated in the June 2009 issue of ESPN The Magazine that "It was determined when I was about 7 years old.