Andy Serkis facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Andy Serkis
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Serkis at GalaxyCon Austin in 2023
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| Born |
Andrew Clement Serkis
20 April 1964 Ruislip Manor, Middlesex, England
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| Education | Lancaster University |
| Occupation |
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| Years active | 1985–present |
| Spouse(s) |
Lorraine Ashbourne
(m. 2002) |
| Children | 3, including Ruby and Louis |
| Awards | Full list |
Andrew Clement Serkis (born 20 April 1964) is an English actor and filmmaker. He is famous for his special acting technique called motion capture. This involves using his movements, voice, and facial expressions to create computer-generated characters.
Some of his most well-known motion capture roles include Gollum in The Lord of the Rings movies and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. He also played King Kong in the 2005 film and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes series. Other famous characters he has played are Captain Haddock in The Adventures of Tintin and Supreme Leader Snoke in the Star Wars sequel films. He also appeared as Kino Loy in the Star Wars Disney+ series Andor.
Andy Serkis has won many awards for his motion capture acting. These include an Empire Award and two Saturn Awards. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe for his role in the TV film Longford. In 2020, he received a BAFTA Award for his great work in British cinema. He also won a Daytime Emmy Award in 2021 for the series The Letter for the King.
Besides motion capture, Serkis has acted in other films. He played Ulysses Klaue in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies Avengers: Age of Ultron and Black Panther. He also voiced the character in the Disney+ series What If…?. In 2022, he played Alfred Pennyworth in The Batman. Serkis also has his own company, The Imaginarium, which focuses on motion capture. He has directed films like Breathe (2017) and Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021).
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Early Life and Education
Andy Serkis was born on 20 April 1964 in Ruislip Manor, England. He spent his childhood in both Ruislip and Baghdad, Iraq. His mother was half Iraqi and half English. She taught children with disabilities. His father was an Iraqi-Armenian doctor. His family is Catholic.
Serkis went to St Benedict's School, Ealing. He later studied visual arts and theatre at Lancaster University. He graduated in 1985. At university, he joined the Nuffield Studio. He helped design and produce plays there. He also acted in some productions. One of his first lead roles was in a play called Gotcha. This made him decide to focus on acting. He studied famous acting methods and even performed a one-man show.
Career in Acting and Motion Capture
After university, Serkis joined the Duke's Playhouse as an actor. He acted in many different plays, including works by Bertolt Brecht and William Shakespeare. He then joined touring theatre companies. In the early 1990s, he moved to London. He appeared in plays like Hush and Mojo. He also started acting in television shows. Some early roles included parts in The Darling Buds of May and Pie in the Sky. He also appeared in films like Loop and Topsy-Turvy. In 1999, he played Bill Sikes in the TV show Oliver Twist.
Andy Serkis became widely known for playing Sméagol / Gollum in The Lord of the Rings films (2001–2003). He provided the motion-capture movements and voice for this computer-generated character. His amazing work on The Lord of the Rings made people wonder about how actors who use motion capture should be recognized. Many felt he deserved awards for his unique performance.
Serkis continued his motion capture work in many other films. He played the main character in the 2005 film King Kong. He also played Caesar in the Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), and War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) movies. He also worked on video games. He provided motion capture and voice for King Bohan in Heavenly Sword (2007) and Monkey in Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (2010).
In 2006, Serkis starred as Ian Brady in the film Longford. He also appeared in The Prestige and voiced Spike in the animated film Flushed Away. In 2007, he played Hoodwink in the film Sugarhouse. He also narrated Monkey Life, a TV series about a monkey sanctuary. In 2008, Serkis played Albert Einstein in the TV production Einstein and Eddington. He also appeared as Capricorn in the film Inkheart. In 2010, Serkis played singer Ian Dury in ... & Rock & Roll.
Serkis worked again with director Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg on Tintin. He provided the voice and motion capture for Captain Haddock and his ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock. The film was released in 2011.
In 2012, Serkis returned as Gollum in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. He also worked as the second unit director for The Hobbit films. This meant he helped direct some scenes, like aerial shots and battle scenes. In 2014, he played Caesar again in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and then in War for the Planet of the Apes in 2017.
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Serkis was a consultant for the motion capture in the 2014 film Godzilla. He helped control the movements of the creatures. He played Ulysses Klaue in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) and Black Panther (2018). He also played Supreme Leader Snoke in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) and Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017). In 2019, he appeared as the Ghost of Christmas Past in the miniseries A Christmas Carol. In 2022, he played Alfred Pennyworth in The Batman.
In 2021, Serkis won a Daytime Emmy Award for his role in the Netflix series The Letter for the King. In 2022, Serkis returned to the Star Wars world in the Disney+ series Andor, playing Kino Loy.
The Imaginarium Studios
In 2011, Andy Serkis started The Imaginarium Studios with Jonathan Cavendish. This company is in London. It creates digital characters using performance capture technology. Serkis has used this technology a lot in his career. The studio is working on a new motion capture film version of Animal Farm.
Directing Films
Serkis was the second unit director for The Hobbit films. He made his first film as a director with Breathe in 2017. He also directed and starred in Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle. In 2019, he directed the superhero film Venom: Let There Be Carnage, which was released in 2021. In 2022, he was set to direct an animated version of George Orwell's Animal Farm. In 2024, it was announced that Serkis will direct, produce, and star in a new Lord of the Rings film called The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum. This movie is expected in 2026.
Other Activities
In 2015, Serkis worked with the band Coldplay on their music video for "Adventure of a Lifetime". He helped the band members perform as chimpanzees using motion capture.
In May 2020, Serkis joined a YouTube series called Reunited Apart. He reunited with his Lord of the Rings castmates online. This series helped raise money for charities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Serkis and producer Andrew Levitas are creating a comic book series called Eternus. It is about Heracles, the son of Zeus. The first issue came out in August 2022.
Audiobooks and Charity Work
During the COVID-19 lockdown, Serkis read the entire book of The Hobbit online. He did this to raise money for charities. Over 650,000 people watched, and he raised more than £283,000. Later, he professionally narrated The Hobbit again for Audible. This audiobook was released in 2020.
In 2021, Serkis also recorded professional audiobooks for all three The Lord of the Rings novels. In 2022, he recorded a new audiobook version of the Terry Pratchett book Small Gods.
Personal Life
Andy Serkis married actress Lorraine Ashbourne in July 2002. They live in Crouch End, North London. They have three children: Ruby (born 1998), Sonny (born 2000), and Louis (born 2004). All three of their children are also actors. Louis and Ruby appeared in the 2019 film The Kid Who Would Be King. Ruby and Andy Serkis played father and daughter in the 2020 Netflix series The Letter for the King. Louis also voiced Bhoot in Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, which his father directed and co-starred in.
Although he was raised Catholic, Andy Serkis has been an atheist since his teenage years. However, he has said that the culture of Catholicism is still important to him and his family.
Directed Features
| Year | Title | Distribution |
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| 2017 | Breathe | Bleecker Street |
| 2018 | Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle | Netflix |
| 2021 | Venom: Let There Be Carnage | Sony Pictures Releasing |
| 2025 | Animal Farm |
Images for kids
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Serkis at GalaxyCon Austin in 2023
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Serkis at the world premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in Wellington in 2003
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Serkis at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con
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Serkis promoting Dawn of the Planet of the Apes at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con
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Serkis and his wife Lorraine Ashbourne in 2013
See also
In Spanish: Andy Serkis para niños
- Motion-capture acting
