--- description: Find out why Tomi Adeyemi is one of the 100 most influential people of 2020. title: Tomi Adeyemi: The 100 Most Influential People of 2020 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte9671a2f7b65dff1/698a1247929fad35b6bf68db/time-100-Tomi-Adeyemi.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Sep 22, 2020 # Tomi Adeyemi by John Boyega  Djeneba Aduayom for TIME When someone told me about [Tomi Adeyemi](https://time.com/5743069/tomi-adeyemi-children-of-virtue-and-vengeance/ "undefined")’s [_Children of Blood and Bone_](https://bookshop.org/books/children-of-blood-and-bone/9781250170972 "undefined")_,_ describing it as a cross between Harry Potter, theChronicles of Narnia and Yoruba gods, I was shocked. It sounded like the best combination ever: How had I not heard of it? I read it, then I read it again, then I listened to the audiobook. I was being introduced to a world I couldn’t have imagined before. The characters were larger than life but with very human problems and issues. And the novel spoke to my self-identity and culture as a Nigerian, in its social commentary and in its depiction of both magic and oppression. It’s so important to have representation within [books like this](https://time.com/5476044/best-fantasy-books/ "undefined"). In school, I realized that only when my teacher considered my point of view did learning become easier. When my kids are growing up, they’re going to have these new classic heroes from an environment they know. Tomi is the god of ideas. She’s inspiring a lot of young people to write. She creates the very world that we as actors get to play in. And the big-screen adaptation will hire a lot of people and [bring more representation to our industry](https://time.com/5861861/jasmine-guillory-black-fiction/ "undefined")—all that comes directly from Tomi’s imagination. She is going to be very powerful when it comes to bringing stories and ideas to the forefront. I would absolutely drop everything to be in the film. If I missed the opportunity to be a part of it, it would be like missing history. _Boyega is an actor who stars in the upcoming series_ Small Axe _on Amazon_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2020/5888211/tomi-adeyemi/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2020/5888211/tomi-adeyemi/"},"headline":"Tomi Adeyemi","datePublished":"2020-09-22T20:13:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:22:19.086Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2020/5888211/tomi-adeyemi/","keywords":["TIME 100","T100 2020","T100 2020 Pioneers"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte9671a2f7b65dff1/698a1247929fad35b6bf68db/time-100-Tomi-Adeyemi.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte9671a2f7b65dff1/698a1247929fad35b6bf68db/time-100-Tomi-Adeyemi.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2020/5888211/tomi-adeyemi/","name":"Tomi Adeyemi"}}]}] ```