Peter Serafinowicz Biography

Peter Szymon Serafinowicz ( ; born 10 July 1972) is an English actor, voice actor, comedian, and writer. Among many film roles, he played Pete in Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Garthan Saal in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), as well as providing the voice of Darth Maul in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999). He has appeared in a variety of British and American comedy series.

Early life

Serafinowicz was born 10 July 1972 in Liverpool. He was raised Roman Catholic, and is of Belarusian descent on his father's side. He attended Our Lady of the Assumption Primary School and St Francis Xavier Secondary School.

Career

Serafinowicz made his broadcasting debut in 1993 on Radio 1 show The Knowledge, a spoof documentary about the music industry. From there he went on to perform in Radio 4 shows Week Ending, Harry Hill's Fruit Corner, Grievous Bodily Radio, The Two Dannys and A Whole New Ball Game.

On 1 May 1997, he appeared in The Election Night Armistice as Moz Bingham, the fictional press secretary to the then shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, who verbally abuses and bullies the BBC's Nick Robinson in a spoof phone call over the politician's news coverage. In 1998 he appeared on TV in Comedy Nation and You are Here. He also had a role in the Simon Nye-penned sitcom How Do You Want Me?.

In 1999, he made a number of appearances in Channel 4 sitcom Spaced, playing principal character Tim Bisley's (Simon Pegg) nemesis, Duane Benzie. He made another appearance in the series when it returned in 2001. In 2001 Serafinowicz took the lead in BBC Two sitcom World of Pub, playing the same character as he had done in the show's run on Radio 4. He was also in The Junkies, an Internet sitcom. In 2002 the critically acclaimed Look Around You, a series of 10-minute 1970s school science video spoofs, debuted on BBC Two in which Serafinowicz played a scientist. He co-wrote the show alongside Robert Popper, whom he met on the set of Spaced. The show returned in 2005 as a spoof of the 1980s show Tomorrow's World, with Serafinowicz playing Peter Packard, one of the presenters.

In 2003, he appeared in another Nye-written sitcom, Hardware, in which he played the affable Kenny. He reprised this role in the second series in 2004. Also in 2004 he appeared in British rom-zom-com (romantic-zombie-comedy) Shaun of the Dead, playing Pete, the tidy flatmate of principal characters Shaun and Ed. He also appeared in boxing film The Calcium Kid. In Sixty Six, the 2006 British film about a Jewish boy whose Bar Mitzvah is scheduled for the same day as the 1966 FIFA World Cup Final, Serafinowicz plays Uncle Jimmy. In the week before the 2006 Academy Awards a video circulated on the Internet of a fake news item (called "O! News", a parody of E! News) about a new Oscar statue, in which Serafinowicz imitated Alan Alda, Paul McCartney and Al Pacino. A second O! News video later appeared, parodying the 2006 Apple Corps v. Apple Computer lawsuit. This attracted the interest of the BBC, and a pilot was commissioned for The Peter Serafinowicz Show. A full series was broadcast on BBC Two in 2007 (with a Christmas special in 2008). For his performance, Serafinowicz was presented with the Best Entertainer prize at the 2008 Rose d'Or ceremony. The series was also nominated for Best Comedy Programme at the 2009 BAFTA Television Awards.

Serafinowicz had also made a number of guest appearances on television, including the comedy shows Smack the Pony and Hippies (both 1999), Black Books (2000), I'm Alan Partridge (2002) and Little Britain (2003), comedy drama Murder Most Horrid (1999) and ITV drama series Agatha Christie's Marple (2005). He has made a number of guest appearances on both television and radio panel shows. He regularly appeared on The 99p Challenge and appeared on Have I Got News for You in 2005, 2006 and 2008, 8 Out of 10 Cats in 2005, and QI in 2003. He also appeared on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross on 19 October 2007, Would I Lie to You? on 8 August 2008 and 30 July 2010 and Never Mind the Buzzcocks on 15 October 2009.

In 2008, Serafinowicz was working with Robert Popper on a new television series, as well as a website, based on a spoof religion "Tarvuism" for US network Adult Swim. In 2009, he appeared in Universal Films' Couples Retreat as Sctanley, the manager of the Eden Resort, directed by Peter Billingsley.

In 2010, Serafinowicz directed the music video for Hot Chip's song "I Feel Better", their second single from the album One Life Stand. He followed this up in 2012 when he directed the music video for the band's song "Night & Day", the first single from their album In Our Heads. The video starred Lara Stone, Terence Stamp and Reggie Watts.

In 2010, he co-starred with Will Arnett in the FOX sitcom Running Wilde, devised by Arrested Development creator Mitchell Hurwitz. It premiered on Fox on 21 September 2010, but was cancelled by the network after 13 episodes.

In June 2013, Serafinowicz provided the English language audiobook recording for the Roald Dahl novel Danny, the Champion of the World. In July 2013 Serafinowicz made his film directing debut with the dark comedy film I See What You Did There, which he cowrote with Danny Wallace.

In 2014 it was announced that Serafinowicz would play the role Crowley in the BBC Radio 4 adaption of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's novel Good Omens.

In the same year Serafinowicz featured in Guardians of the Galaxy; playing Garthan Saal, a Denarian ranking pilot of the Nova Corps. He appeared in Series 9 of Doctor Who as The Fisher King.

In 2016 Serafinowicz posted a series of YouTube videos entitled "Sassy Trump", in which he redubs speeches from Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign with a camp voice. He has also created parodies dubbing Trump with a Cockney accent, and a posh English accent.

In 2015 it was announced that Serafinowicz was in the process of writing a television sitcom based on his Brian Butterfield character.

He stars in the title role of Amazon's The Tick, the pilot for which premiered on 19 August 2016.

Personal life

Serafinowicz is married to actress Sarah Alexander. His brother James is a film producer and writer; his sister Helen is a writer, and is married to writer-director Graham Linehan.

Allegations against grandfather

In October 2007, Serafinowicz dropped his attempt to use the Human Rights Act against the national newspapers. He had sought to prevent the publication of details revealing his grandfather, Szymon Serafinowicz Sr. as the first man in Britain to have been tried under the War Crimes Act . Serafinowicz Sr. was charged with direct involvement in three murders and personal involvement in the destruction of the Jewish populations of Mir and Minsk, but found unfit for trial on grounds of dementia in 1997 and died later that year, aged 86..

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999	Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace	Darth Maul (voice)
2001	Calcium	Scientist	Short film; also writer and producer
2003	Hello Friend	Email Voice-over	Short film
2004	Shaun of the Dead	Pete
2004	The Calcium Kid	Dave King	Credited erroneously as Peter Serafinowichz
2005	Ripley Under Ground	Nigel
2006	Sixty Six	Uncle Jimmy / Mr. Reubens, Sr. / Football Commentator
2007	Grindhouse	Screaming Man	Fake Don't trailer
2007	Run Fatboy Run	Sports Commentator
2008	Tales of the Riverbank	Various
2009	Couples Retreat	Sctanley
2010	The Best and the Brightest	Clark
2011	Killing Bono	Hammond
2013	The World's End	Knock-a-Door Run Home Owner	Uncredited
2013	Underdogs	Loco (voice)	UK version
2014	Muppets Most Wanted	Gulag Guard	Uncredited
2014	SOS: Save Our Skins	Andrew (voice)
2014	Food Club	Narrator	Short film
2014	Pudsey the Dog: The Movie	Edward The Horse (voice)
2014	Guardians of the Galaxy	Denarian Garthan Saal
2015	Spy	Aldo
2016	Sing	Big Daddy (voice)
2017	John Wick: Chapter 2	The Sommelier
2017	Going in Style	Murphy
2017	An Ordinary Man	Miro	Completed

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	Spitting Image	Jacques Chirac (voice)	2 episodes
1997	The Saturday Night Armistice	Moz Bingham (voice)
1998	Comedy Nation	Various
1998	Europigeon	Terry Wogan (voice)	Television film
1998	Alexei Sayle's Merry-Go-Round	Voice-Over	6 episodes
1998	ITV Panto	Second Henchman	Episode: "Jack and the Beanstalk"
1998-1999	How Do You Want Me?	Dean Yardley	9 episodes
1999	The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns	George Fitzpatrck	Television film
1999	Murder Most Horrid	Tony Frost	Episode: "Dinner at Tiffany's"
1999	Smack the Pony		2 episodes
1999	Sermon from St. Albion's	Alastair Campbell	1 episode
1999	Hippies	Narrator / Robin	2 episodes
1999-2001	Spaced	Duane Benzie	3 episodes
2000	Black Books	Howell Granger	Episode: "The Big Lock-Out"
2000	The Junkies	Big Al / Narrator	Pilot
2001	World of Pub	Garry / Various	6 episodes
2002	What a Cartoon!	Butch (voice)	Episode: "Colin Versus the World in "Mr. Lounge Lizard"
2002	I'm Alan Partridge	Tex	Episode: "Never Say Alan Again"
2002	15 Storeys High		2 episodes
2002-2005	Look Around You	Scientist / Peter Packard	Also creator, writer, producer, composer
2003	Little Britain	Interviewer at Prime Minister's Questions	Episode: "Biggest House of Cards"
2003-2004	Hardware	Kenny	12 episodes
2006	Agatha Christie's Marple	Walter Fane	Episode: "Sleeping Murder"
2006	The IT Crowd	Newsreader / Lift / Voice Over (voices)	3 episodes
2006-2015	South Park	Darth Chef / Match Commentator (voices)	Also creative consultant
2007-2008	The Peter Serafinowicz Show	Various	Also creator, writer, producer
2009	Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle	Voice Over	6 episodes
2010	Whitechapel	DCI Torbin Cazenove	3 episodes
2010-2011	Running Wilde	Fa'ad Shaoulian	13 episodes
2011	Funny or Die Presents	Puppet (voice)	Segment: "The Terrys"
2011	This is Jinsy	Eric Dunt	Episode: "Cupboards"
2011-2013	Archer	Various (voices)	3 episodes
2011-2013	NTSF:SD:SUV::	S.A.M. (voice) / Sagan	21 episodes
2012	The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret	Tito the Cycling Lawyer	Episode: "Todd and His Valet Arrive in Leeds and What They Saw Ther"
2012	The Secret Policeman's Ball 2012	Announcer (voice) / Paul McCartney
2012	Watson & Oliver	Various	2 episodes
2012	Childrens Hospital	Michael Caine (voice)	Episode: "British Hospital"
2012	American Dad!	Goran the Mutilator (voice)	Episode: "Killer Vacation"
2012	Bad Sugar	Rolph Cauldwell	Pilot
2013	It's Kevin	Bill Grundy	1 episode
2013	Playhouse Presents	Roger	Episode: "Hey Diddly Dee"
2013	Father Figure	Karl	Episode: "Chin Chin"
2013-2015	Parks and Recreation	Edgar Covington	3 episodes
2013-2015	Axe Cop	Various (voices)	8 episodes
2014	Adventure Time	Lumpy Space Prince (voice)	Episode: "The Prince Who Wanted Everything"
2014	Mr. Sloane	Ross	6 episodes
2014	Gravity Falls	Blind Ivan (voice)	Episode: "Society of the Blind Eye"
2014	The Britishes	Lord British	4 episodes
2015	Moonbeam City	Nocturne von Groff (voice)	Episode: "The Strike Visualizer Strikes Again"
2015	Doctor Who	Fisher King (voice)	Episode: "Before the Flood"
2015	Hunt the Truth	Black Box	6 episodes
2015-2016	The Adventures of OG Sherlock Kush	OG Sherlock Kush (voice)
2015-2016	TripTank	Various (voices)	5 episodes
2016	The Tick	The Tick	Also producer
2017	Mickey and the Roadster Racers	Agent Chauncey Chips (voice)	Episode: "Agent Double-O-Goof"
2017	People of Earth	Eric the Cube
2017	Rick and Morty	Agency Director (voice)	Episode: "Pickle Rick"

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2001	Z: Steel Soldiers	Lassar (voice)
2003	Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior	Space Marine Captain Ardius (voice)
2013	Lego City Undercover	Forrest Blackwell / Cornelius Burns / Jethro Hayes (voices)
2014	Dark Souls II	Mild-Mannered Pate (voice)
2014	LittleBigPlanet 3	Dr. Maxim / El Jeff / Papal Mch (voices)
2016	Deus Ex: Mankind Divided	MacReady (voice)
2017	Lego Worlds	Narrator (voice)	Uncredited