Andy Serkis
Birthdate: Apr 20, 1964
Birthplace: Ruislip, London, England, UK
Andy Serkis (birthname: Andrew Clement G. Serkis) can be credited with being the godfather of motion-capture performance, most memorably performing Gollum in Peter Jackson’s movie trilogy version of J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003), and then, after a fine run as an actor, branched out into directing with his first feature, Breathe (2017), the U.K.-U.S. biopic co-production with partial backing from BBC Films and the British Film Institute written by William Nicholson, starring Andrew Garfield, Claire Foy, Tom Hollander and Hugh Bonneville and which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival before a $5 million global gross for distributors Bleecker Street-Participant Media (U.S.)/STXInternational (U.K.).
Serkis was director/actor of the Rudyard Kipling big-screen adaptation, Mowgli (2018), with Rohan Chand, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Benedict Cumberbatch, Naomie Harris, Matthew Rhys and Freida Pinto, originally made through the aegis of Warner Bros. Pictures but sold to and released theatrically and on streaming by Netflix.
Serkis directed the hit sequel for Columbia Pictures/Marvel Entertainment, Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), starring and produced by Tom Hardy, with Michelle Williams, Naomie Harris, Reid Scott, Stephen Graham and Woody Harrelson, and delivering over $506 million globally for Sony Pictures Releasing. Serkis was director/producer of his first animated movie, Animal Farm (2025), adapted by Nicholas Stoller from George Orwell’s 1945 classic novel, starring the voices of Seth Rogen, Gaten Matarazzo, Kieran Culkin, Glenn Close, Laverne Cox, Steve Buscemi, Harrelson, Jim Parsons, Kathleen Turner and Iman Vellani, produced Aniventure/Cinesite/The Imaginarium Studios, launching at the Annecy Animation Film Festival and released wide by Angel Studios.
Andy Serkis directed the long-in-development sequel for Warner Bros/New Line, The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum (2027), which marked Serkis’s return to his career-defining motion-capture performance as Gollum, written by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou and produced by Peter Jackson, Walsh and Boyens. Serkis was actor in movies for 23 years before his debut directorial project, appearing in Prince of Jutland (1994), with Gabriel Byrne, Helen Mirren, Christian Bale and Kate Beckinsale; The Near Room (1995); Stella Does Tricks (1996), starring Kelly Macdonald; director/writer Mike Leigh’s Career Girls (1997); the Serkis-starring Loop (1997), co-starring Susannah York; Among Giants (1998), co-starring Pete Postlethwaite and Rachel Griffiths; Leigh’s Topsy-Turvy (1999); Shiner (2000), co-starring Michael Caine and Martin Landau; the Julien Temple-directed Pandaemonium (2000); and The Jolly Boys’ Last Stand (2000).
Serkis made a big splash as an actor with his motion-capture performance as the wily Gollum in Peter Jackson’s acclaimed The Lord of the Rings trilogy including The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003), and then reunited with director/co-writer/producer Jackson as Gollum for the first movie in the Hobbit trilogy, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012), which cumulatively grossed approximately $4 billion for New Line Cinema. Serkis delivered more notable and high-profile motion capture performances as Kong in director/co-writer/producer Peter Jackson’s remake, King Kong (2005), and as the rebellious ape Caesar in 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), grossing a cume of $1.68 billion worldwide.
Andy Serkis appeared or co-starred in other movies directed by major helmers including Michael Winterbottom (24 Hour Party People in 2002), Christopher Nolan (The Prestige in 2006), John Landis (Burke and Hare in 2010), Steven Spielberg (The Adventures of Tintin in 2011), Joss Whedon (Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015), J.J. Abrams (Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015), Rian Johnson (Star Wars: The Last Jedi in 2017), Ryan Coogler (Black Panther in 2018) and Matt Reeves (The Batman in 2022).
Personal life
Andy Serkis was born in the Middlesex area of Greater London, and raised in Middlesex and Baghdad, Iraq, by his parents, his mother Lylie (who is half-Iraqi and half-British) and his father Clement, an Iraqi Armenian gynecologist. sister brother. Serkis attended St. Benedict’s School in Ealing and earned his degree in Theater at the Lancaster University in 1985 and studied at the University of Lancaster’s The County College, before he launched a career in theater at the Duke’s Playhouse in Lancaster. Serkis has been married to Lorraine Ashbourne since 2002; the couple has three children, Sonny, Louis and Ruby. Serkis’s height is 5’ 8”. Serkis’s estimated net worth is $18 million.
Known For
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
(2011)
Andy Serkis Movies
actor
Upcoming (4)
- 2027 |
- 2026 | The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollumas Gollum
- 2026 |
Young Washington
asEdward Braddock
Before he was the Father of a Nation, he was a soldier fighting to survive. A single misstep thrusts young George Washington into the center of a global conflict, testing his honor, loyalty, and courage. As alliances crumble and the frontier erupts into war, he must confront not only his enemies but the man he's becoming. This is the untold story of Young Washington.
- 2026 |
Animal Farm
asMr. Jones, Old Major, Rooster
Following an animal revolution, the pigs seize power and a farm is transformed into a ruthless dictatorship.
Previous (50)
- 2025 | Animal Farmas Benjamin
- 2024 |
- 2024 |
Venom: The Last Dance
asKnull
Eddie and Venom, on the run, face pursuit from both worlds. As circumstances tighten, they're compelled to make a heart-wrenching choice that could mark the end of their symbiotic partnership.
- 2023 | Blue Whales: Return of the Giantsas Narrator
- 2023 | Luther: The Fallen Sunas David Robey
- 2022 |
The Batman
asAlfred
When a sadistic serial killer begins murdering key political figures in Gotham, Batman is forced to investigate the city's hidden corruption and question his family's involvement.
- 2021 |
SAS: Red Notice
asGeorge Clements
A small army of well trained criminals led by Grace Lewis have hijacked a train deep beneath the English Channel.
- 2020 | The Animated World of Halas and Batchelor
- 2019 |
- 2018 | Mowgli: Legend of the Jungleas Baloo
- 2018 |
Black Panther
asUlysses Klaue
T'Challa, heir to the hidden but advanced kingdom of Wakanda, must step forward to lead his people into a new future and must confront a challenger from his country's past.
- 2017 | British Museum presents: Hokusai
- 2017 |
Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi
asSnoke
Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi
Rey develops her abilities with the help of Luke Skywalker as the Resistance prepares for battle against the First Order.
- 2017 |
War for the Planet of the Apes
asCaesar
War for the Planet of the Apes
After the apes suffer unimaginable losses, Caesar wrestles with his darker instincts and begins his own mythic quest to avenge his kind.
- 2015 |
Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens
asSupreme Leader Snoke
Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens
As a new threat to the galaxy rises, Rey, a desert scavenger, and Finn, an ex-stormtrooper, must join Han Solo and Chewbacca to search for the one hope of restoring peace.
- 2014 |
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
asCaesar
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
The fragile peace between apes and humans is threatened as mistrust and betrayal threaten to plunge both tribes into a war for dominance over the Earth.
- 2012 | London: The Modern Babylonas Quotations reader
- 2012 |
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
asGollum
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
A reluctant Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, sets out to the Lonely Mountain with a spirited group of dwarves to reclaim their mountain home and the gold within it from the dragon Smaug.
- 2011 | Death of a Superheroas Dr. Adrian King
- 2011 | The Adventures of Tintinas Captain Haddock
- 2011 |
The Adventures of Tintin
asCaptain Haddock
Intrepid reporter Tintin and Captain Haddock set off on a treasure hunt for a sunken ship commanded by Haddock's ancestor.
- 2011 |
Arthur Christmas
asLead Elf
Santa's clumsy son Arthur sets out on a mission with Grandsanta to give out a misplaced present to a young girl in less than two hours on Christmas Day.
- 2010 | Burke and Hareas William Hare
- 2010 | Brighton Rockas Colleoni
- 2011 | Rise of the Planet of the Apesas Caesar
- 2011 |
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
asCaesar
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
A substance designed to help the brain repair itself gives advanced intelligence to a chimpanzee who leads an ape uprising.
- 2010 | Conference of Animalsas Charles
- 2010 | Sex & Drugs & Rock & Rollas Ian Dury
- 2008 | Inkheartas Capricorn
- 2008 | The Cottageas David
- 2007 | Extraordinary Renditionas Maro, Interrogator
- 2007 | Sugarhouseas Hoodwink
- 2006 | Flushed Awayas Spike
- 2006 | The Prestigeas Alley
- 2006 |
- 2005 | King Kongas Kong
- 2005 |
- 2004 | Blessedas Father Carlo
- 2004 | 13 Going on 30as Richard Kneeland
- 2002 | The Escapistas Ricky Barnes
- 2001 |
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
asGollum
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
A meek Hobbit from the Shire and eight companions set out on a journey to destroy the powerful One Ring and save Middle-earth from the Dark Lord Sauron.
- 2000 | Pandaemoniumas John Thelwall
- 2000 | Five Seconds to Spareas Chester
- 2000 | Shineras Mel
- 2000 | The Jolly Boys' Last Standas Anthony 'Spider' Dale
- 1996 | Stella Does Tricksas Fitz - Thug
- 1998 | Among Giantsas Bob
- 1997 | Mojoas Potts
- 1997 | Career Girlsas Mr. Evans
- 1995 | The Near Roomas Bunny
director
Previous (2)
- 2021 |
Venom: Let There Be Carnage
Eddie Brock attempts to reignite his career by interviewing serial killer Cletus Kasady, who becomes the host of the symbiote Carnage and escapes prison after a failed execution.
- 2017 |
Facts About Andy Serkis
Shingle: Andy Serkis co-founded the British-based The Imaginarium Studios with producer Jonathan Cavendish in 2011.
AKA: Serkis’s nickname is “Gollum.
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