HELLO! to KINDNES: IDRIS ELBA

For World Kindness Day 2024, HELLO! is celebrating the selfless celebrities, campaigning royals and fabulous fundraisers who prove that being kind isn't determined by who you are, but by what you do. Introduced in 1998 by the World Kindness Movement, this special day on 13 November encourages us all to practise kindness in our daily lives, helping us nurture our feelings of empathy, understanding and compassion to create a more caring world.

- NICKY MORRIS

Kindness doesn't just benefit others - it can help reduce stress, increase satisfaction and bring about change for ourselves as well. It's a gateway to happiness that makes everyone feel good.

In this special issue, we champion those who have carried out acts of kindness, whether in public or in private, and offer advice on how we can all create a greater focus on kindness on a daily basis. Let's say HELLO! to Kindness and create a kinder world.

If anybody knows just how lifechanging one act of kindness can be, it's IDRIS ELBA. After receiving a £1,500 grant from The Prince's Trust (now The King's Trust) as a teenager to attend the National Youth Music Theatre, the actor, who was born in London to a Sierra Leonean father and a Ghanaian mother, embarked on a hugely successful acting and music career.

Now one of Hollywood's biggest stars - best known for small-screen roles in Luther and The Wire, and on the big screen in Thor and Pacific Rim - Idris is giving back to the community and bettering others' lives in a multitude of ways.

One person who has benefited from Idris's compassion and kindness is his kickboxing coach Kieran Keddle, who trained the actor in the lead-up to his professional kickboxing match for the 2017 Discovery+ series Idris Elba: Fighter, and joined him in Australia while he was filming 2011 superhero film Thor.