Andy Serkis.

Andy Serkis was born on April 20, 1964, in Ruislip, London, to a British mother, Lylie Weech, who taught handicapped children, and an Armenian father, Dr. Clement Serkis, a gynecologist who briefly ran a hospital in Baghdad. For the first ten years of his life, Serkis traveled between London and Baghdad, living with his four siblings and multiple au pairs. He attended St. Benedict’s School, a Roman Catholic boys’ school in London, where he developed a passion for art and painting. At Lancaster University, he studied visual arts and initially worked in stage design before making his acting debut in a student production of Barrie Keeffe’s Gotcha.

Serkis began his professional acting career in 1985 as an apprentice at Duke’s Playhouse in Lancaster, performing in fourteen plays. He later appeared on major British stages, including the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester and the Royal Court Theatre in London, where he played the Fool in King Lear. In 1999, he landed the role of Gollum in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, spending four years in performance capture. His work as Gollum earned him critical acclaim and is ranked #10 on Premiere Magazine’s 100 Greatest Movie Characters.

He continued with performance capture as King Kong 2005, Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes 2011, and Supreme Leader Snoke in Star Wars: The Force Awakens 2015. Serkis also took traditional roles, such as Ian Brady in Longford 2006 and Ian Dury in Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll 2010, earning award nominations. He founded The Imaginarium Studios in London, a production house focusing on motion capture, and made his directorial debut with Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle 2018.

Andy Serkis married actress and singer Lorraine Ashbourne, with whom he has three children: daughter Ruby born 1998, and sons Sonny born 2000 and Louis Ashbourne Serkis born 2004, the latter of whom starred in The Kid Who Would Be King 2019. Away from acting, Serkis is an accomplished painter and an avid mountaineer, having developed a love for the Lake District during his university years. He is a pescetarian and supports charitable causes such as The Hope Foundation, which provides medical aid to children affected by leukemia and war.

Andy Serkis pioneered performance capture, demonstrating that actors can fully embody digital characters, from Gollum to Caesar. The Imaginarium Studios, co-founded with Jonathan Cavendish, has become a hub for motion capture technology. The American Film Institute recognized Gollum as one of the greatest characters in film history. Serkis’s influence is seen in the increased use of performance capture in blockbuster films, and he continues to act and direct, expanding the boundaries of digital performance.