I have been a huge fan of Chiwetel Ejiofor since I first saw him in the 2004 film Dirty Pretty Things. “12 Years a Slave” may be his breakthrough performance, and I hope it encourages audiences to seek out some of his previous work in films as widely varied as Denzel Washington’s sidekick in Spike Lee’s Inside Man, a sci-fi villain in Serenity, a romantic pianist in Woody Allen’s Melinda and Melinda, and a drag queen in Kinky Boots.

He also plays a musician in “Dancing on the Edge,” a miniseries premiering this week on Starz.