Asa Butterfield facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Asa Butterfield
Butterfield in 2019
Born	Asa Bopp Farr Butterfield (1997-04-01) 1 April 1997 (age 28) London, England
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2006–present

Asa Bopp Farr Butterfield (/ˈeɪsə/; born Asa Maxwell Thornton Farr Butterfield; 1 April 1997) is an English actor. Beginning his career as a child actor, Butterfield first achieved recognition as the lead of the historical drama film The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008). He continued to headline films during the 2010s, starring in the adventure drama Hugo (2011), the science fiction film Ender's Game (2013), the drama X+Y (2014), and the fantasy Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016). From 2019 to 2023, Butterfield portrayed the lead of the Netflix comedy-drama series Sex Education.

Early life

Asa Bopp Farr Butterfield was born on 1 April 1997, in Islington, London, and is the son of Jacqueline Farr, a psychologist, and Sam Butterfield, an advertising copywriter. He was educated at Stoke Newington School.

Career

Butterfield started acting at age seven at the Young Actors Theatre Islington. Later, he secured minor roles in the 2006 television drama After Thomas and the 2007 film Son of Rambow.

In 2008, he had a guest role playing Donny in the television series Ashes to Ashes. In that same year, aged ten, Butterfield played the lead role in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Director Mark Herman said that they came across Butterfield early on in the audition process. He was on the first audition tape he received and he was the third hopeful he met in person. Herman thought Butterfield's performance was outstanding, but only decided to cast him after auditioning hundreds of other boys, "so no stone was left unturned". Herman and producer David Heyman were looking for someone who was able to portray the main character's innocence, so they asked each of the children what they knew about the Holocaust. Butterfield's knowledge was slim and it was purposely kept that way throughout filming so it would be easier for him to convey his character's innocence. The final scenes of the film were shot at the end of the production period to prepare both him and Jack Scanlon for the dramatic ending of the film.

Butterfield beat hundreds of boys to the role and also successfully passed the auditions for a role in Mr. Nobody for which he auditioned at the same time. He elected not to pursue the latter role. In 2008, he portrayed Mordred in the Merlin episode "The Beginning of the End"; Butterfield appeared as Mordred in a number of subsequent episodes. In 2010, he had a small part in The Wolfman. He starred as Norman Green in Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang (2010). The film, and his performance, both received positive reviews.

At age 13, Butterfield played the main and titular character in Martin Scorsese's Hugo, adapted from the novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Hugo was released on 23 November 2011, and achieved critical success. Butterfield played the title role of Andrew "Ender" Wiggin in the film adaptation of the Orson Scott Card novel Ender's Game. The film was released in 2013.

After the shooting of Ender's Game, Butterfield was cast in coming of age British drama X+Y as Nathan Ellis, a mathematical savant on the autism spectrum selected to compete in an internationally renowned mathematics competition. The film premiered on 5 September 2014 at the Toronto International Film Festival. Butterfield's performance received widespread critical acclaim and saw him nominated for the BIFA for Best Actor.

Butterfield at the 2014 Moet BIFA British Independent Film Awards

In 2015, Butterfield appeared in a film adaptation of Ten Thousand Saints. In 2016, he portrayed Jacob Portman in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. He also starred as Gardner Elliot in the film The Space Between Us and as Sebastian in The House of Tomorrow in 2017. In 2018, Butterfield was cast in the main role of Otis Milburn on the Netflix comedy-drama series Sex Education. The series was released on 11 January 2019 to critical acclaim. The second season was released on 17 January 2020, the third on 17 September 2021, and the fourth and final season on 21 September 2023.

Other ventures

Butterfield enjoys making and producing music, and released a mashup of the songs "Teenage Dirtbag" by Wheatus and "Making Plans for Nigel" by XTC. Along with his brother, he is part of a music group called Mambo Fresh. In late 2012, Butterfield co-designed a turn-based video game for iPad with his father and brother called Racing Blind. The game was released to the App Store on 7 April 2013.

Butterfield is involved in competitive Nintendo gaming. In 2017, he competed in the Nintendo World Championships, where he was eliminated early in the invitational. He is an enthusiastic player of competitive Super Smash Bros. and has signed with esports team Panda Global under the tag "Stimpy". His first appearance with the organisation was at Genesis 6. In October 2020, he was signed by Team Liquid.

Since 2017, Butterfield has taught an annual acting masterclass at The Reel Scene acting school in London. The three-day "Asa Butterfield Masterclass" course covers improvisation techniques and students work on scenes from Butterfield's films, which are then filmed on the last day. In 2018, students appeared as extras in the film Greed in which Butterfield appeared.

In 2023, Butterfield played in the annual Soccer Aid charity football match, raising money for UNICEF. Butterfield, a lifelong Arsenal fan, scored England's opening goal assisted by former Arsenal player Jack Wilshere.

Filmography

Film

Key

Denotes films that have not yet been released

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2007	Son of Rambow	Brethren Boy
2008	The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas	Bruno
2010	Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang	Norman Green
	The Wolfman	Younger Ben Talbot
2011	Hugo	Hugo Cabret
2013	Ender's Game	Ender Wiggin
2014	X+Y	Nathan Ellis	Also known as A Brilliant Young Mind
2015	Ten Thousand Saints	Jude Keffy-Horn
2016	Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children	Jacob "Jake" Portman
2017	The House of Tomorrow	Sebastian Prendergast
	Journey's End	Jimmy Raleigh
	The Space Between Us	Gardner Elliot
2018	Then Came You	Calvin Lewis
	Time Freak	Stillman
	Slaughterhouse Rulez	Willoughby Blake
2019	Greed	Finn McCreadie
2022	Choose or Die	Isaac
	Flux Gourmet	Billy Rubin
	Your Christmas or Mine?	James
2023	All Fun and Games	Marcus Fletcher
	Your Christmas or Mine 2	James
2025	Rogue Trooper		Post-production

Television

Key

Denotes television series that have not yet been released

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	After Thomas	Andrew	Television film
2008	Ashes to Ashes	Donny	1 episode (season 1)
2008–2009	Merlin	Mordred	3 episodes
2017	Thunderbirds Are Go	Space Controller Conrad (voice)	1 episode
2019–2023	Sex Education	Otis Milburn	Main role
2020	50 States of Fright	Brandon Boyd	3 episodes
TBA	Out of the Dust	Adam	Filming

Video games

Awards and nominations

See also

In Spanish: Asa Butterfield para niños