The British actor made an appearance at an event held at the BFI Southbank in London on Monday (28Sep15) to launch a study by the Creative Industry Foundation and Mobo, which suggests ethnic minorities are underrepresented in the arts.

The former Spooks star spoke about his own experiences in the entertainment industry, claiming he was unable to break into the films until he left the U.K. and moved to America.

In his speech, Oyelowo told the audience, "I felt pushed out of the U.K. because of the glass ceiling I could feel my head bobbing against, I could see that actors, my peers, those who had a similar trajectory to me were going on to do movies, to play leads. I started to feel I was going to go round in circles. Nice TV, back to the theatre, nice TV... but I wasn't going to be James MCAvoy, I wasn't going to be Benedict Cumberbatch...

"I walked around L.A. and I saw black people on magazine covers, in commercials, on billboards, black people integrated into society in a way I didn't see here and I started to get uncomfortable with where I lived. I felt I was planting my seed in infertile ground...

"As a black person, unfortunately you have to work twice as hard to get half as far. That means I have to work four times as hard as Benedict (Cumberbatch)... who is a very good friend of mine and is a hard worker and a talented actor."

The actor previously spoke out about race issues in the film industry after he was controversially omitted from the list of 2015 Oscar nominees for his performance as civil rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr. in Selma.