51 Facts About Andy Serkis

Andrew Clement Serkis was born on 20 April 1964 and is an English actor and filmmaker.

Andy Serkis has received an Empire Award and two Saturn Awards for his motion-capture acting.

In 2020, Andy Serkis received the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Contribution To Cinema.

Andy Serkis has his own production company and motion capture workshop, The Imaginarium in London, which he used for Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle.

Andy Serkis made his directorial debut with Imaginarium's 2017 film Breathe and directed Venom: Let There Be Carnage.

Andy Serkis was born on 20 April 1964 in Ruislip Manor in Middlesex.

Andy Serkis grew up in both Ruislip and Baghdad, Iraq.

Andy Serkis's mother, Lylie Weech, was half Iraqi and half English, and taught disabled children; his father, Clement Serkis, was an Iraqi-Armenian gynaecologist.

Andy Serkis studied visual arts and theatre as part of his degree at Lancaster University and graduated in 1985.

Andy Serkis was a member of The County College and part of the student radio station Bailrigg FM.

Andy Serkis joined the Nuffield Studio, getting involved in designing and producing plays.

Andy Serkis joined director Mike Leigh's ensemble for two film productions, and appeared in the romantic comedy Loop alongside Susannah York.

Andy Serkis played Dennis in a 1997 Radio 3 broadcast of Loot by Orton, repeated in 2017.

Andy Serkis portrayed Victorian choreographer John D'Auban in Topsy-Turvy, a 1999 film about Gilbert and Sullivan's creation of The Mikado.

In 1999, Andy Serkis played Bill Sikes in ITV's adaptation of Oliver Twist.

Andy Serkis appeared alongside Sacha Baron Cohen in The Jolly Boys' Last Stand in 2000.

Producer Barrie M Osborne campaigned for Serkis to have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, as his voice, body language and facial expressions were used.

Andy Serkis has performed motion-capture work in several other films, including the title character in the 2005 version of King Kong and as Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and War for the Planet of the Apes.

Andy Serkis worked with game developers Ninja Theory on the 2007 release Heavenly Sword, providing the motion capture and voice for King Bohan.

In 2006, Andy Serkis starred as serial killer Ian Brady in the BAFTA-nominated Longford, co-starring Samantha Morton as Myra Hindley and Jim Broadbent as Lord Longford.

That same year, Andy Serkis appeared in the role of Mr Grin in Stormbreaker, the film rendition of Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider novel.

Andy Serkis acted in the film The Prestige as Mr Alley, as the voice of one of the henchrats in the Aardman Animations film Flushed Away named Spike, and appeared in Jim Threapleton's improvised feature film Extraordinary Rendition, which premiered in 2007.

Also that year, Andy Serkis provided the voiceover for Monkey Life, on Five broadcast for three weeks from 13 to 31 August 2007.

In 2008, Andy Serkis appeared as Rigaud in the BBC Television adaptation of Charles Dickens' Little Dorrit and as Capricorn in Inkheart, the film adaptation of Cornelia Funke's novel.

Andy Serkis reunited with Peter Jackson, as a cast member in Jackson's and Steven Spielberg's Tintin trilogy, based on The Adventures of Tintin.

Andy Serkis supplied the voice and motion capture performance of Captain Haddock as well as his ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock.

In 2010, Andy Serkis was cast as William Hare, with Simon Pegg as Burke, in the John Landis black comedy film Burke and Hare based on the Burke and Hare murders in Scotland in 1828.

Andy Serkis featured in the TV series The Accused, in "Liam's Story", written by Danny Brocklehurst and Jimmy McGovern.

Andy Serkis played Caesar in the 20th Century Fox science-fiction film Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

Andy Serkis was the trilogy's second unit director, which included directing aerial shots and battle scenes.

Andy Serkis was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in June 2012.

In 2014, Andy Serkis reprised his role as Caesar in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and again in 2017 for War for the Planet of the Apes, the last of the trilogy.

In Gareth Edwards' 2014 science-fiction monster film Godzilla, Andy Serkis was the consultant on the film's motion capture sequences to "control the souls" of the creatures.

Andy Serkis played Ulysses Klaue in Marvel Studios' Avengers: Age of Ultron, and was a motion capture consultant on the film.

Andy Serkis reprised the role in Marvel Studios' Black Panther, and provided the voice in the sixth episode of Marvel's What If.

Andy Serkis played Supreme Leader Snoke in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and reprised the role in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

In late 2015, it was announced that Andy Serkis was working on a modern film adaptation of Rumpelstiltskin, titled Steelskin.

Andy Serkis received a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Performer in a Daytime Fiction Program in 2021 for his role as Mayor of Mistrinaut, the father of his real life daughter Ruby's character, in the Netflix fantasy series The Letter for the King.

Also for Netflix, Andy Serkis was scheduled to star alongside Idris Elba and Cynthia Erivo in Luther: The Fallen Sun, a television film continuation of Elba's series, Luther.

In 2022, Andy Serkis returned to the Star Wars franchise in a different, non-CGI role in the Disney+ television series Andor, as Kino Loy.

In 2011, Andy Serkis founded The Imaginarium Studios with film producer Jonathan Cavendish.

The Imaginarium is a production company and creative digital studio based in Ealing, London and is dedicated to inventing digital characters using performance capture technology, which Andy Serkis has often worked with.

Andy Serkis served as the second unit director for The Hobbit films and made his directorial debut with Breathe.

Andy Serkis directed and starred in the film, Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle.

Andy Serkis made an appearance in the music video for Neneh Cherry's "Woman", portraying an abusive boyfriend, in 1996.

In 2015, Andy Serkis collaborated with rock band Coldplay in the making of the music video for "Adventure of a Lifetime".

The group performed as chimpanzees with Andy Serkis acting as a motion-capture consultant.

Andy Serkis appears in the BBC Earth programme, Neanderthals: Meet Your Ancestors.

On 7 July 2021, HarperCollinsUK and Recorded Books announced Andy Serkis would follow up his narration of The Hobbit with a professional recording of all three The Lord of the Rings novels that were released on 16 September.

In 2022, Andy Serkis recorded a new audiobook version of the Terry Pratchett Discworld book Small Gods with Bill Nighy and Peter Serafinowicz.

Andy Serkis starred alongside Ruby, and they played father and daughter.