Peter Serafinowicz

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Peter Serafinowicz
Peter Serafinowicz.jpg
Serafinowicz at the July 22, 2010 Look Around You panel at the San Diego Comic-Con
Born Peter Szymon Serafinowicz
(1972-07-10) 10 July 1972 (age 40)
Liverpool, England, UK
Occupation Actor, comedian, writer, composer, voice artist
Spouse(s) Sarah Alexander

Peter Szymon Serafinowicz (/sɛrəˈfɪnəwɪ/; born 10 July 1972) is an English actor, comedian, writer, voice artist and director. He is best known for dubbing the voice of Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, and for appearing in a variety of British and American comedy shows.

Contents

Early life[edit]

Serafinowicz was born in Liverpool, to scaffolder Szymon Serafinowicz Jr. and post office worker Catherine, nee Geary.[1] He attended Our Lady of the Assumption Roman Catholic Primary School and St Francis Xavier Secondary School.[2] He lived in the Gateacre area of Liverpool until his early thirties, before he moved to London.[citation needed]

Career[edit]

Acting and writing[edit]

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) arch-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, the world's first[citation needed] 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.[3] The series was also nominated for Best Comedy Programme at the 2009 BAFTA Television Awards.[4]

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 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.[5] In 2009, he appeared in Universal Films' Couples Retreat as Sctanley, the manager of the Eden Resort, directed by Peter Billingsley.

It was announced early in 2010 that he would be playing Paul McCartney in the now-cancelled remake of the 1968 film Yellow Submarine.[6] Later that year, 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,[7] but was cancelled by the network after 13 episodes.

Voice artist[edit]

Serafinowicz has performed many adverts and voiceovers and is a talented impressionist. His highest profile role as a voice artist was as Darth Maul in the film Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, his voice overdubbing that of Ray Park, who portrayed Darth Maul in costume. This appearance was referred to during the second series of Spaced,[vague] as well as when he provided the voice for Darth Chef in an episode of South Park in 2006.[8] He also did voice work on the Schools programme Look and Read, and more recently portrayed a cyber-terrorist on FX's Archer.

Serafinowicz pretended to be Terry Wogan in a 2003 Comic Relief spoof of Blankety Blank, which led to Wogan inviting Serafinowicz on occasion to appear on Wogan's Radio 2 breakfast programme as a guest (including an appearance during the final week of Wake Up to Wogan) and showcase said Wogan impersonation. Serafinowicz regularly utilises his array of impressions when performing.

On the BBC quiz show Would I Lie to You?, he revealed that he overdubbed the voice of Pelé in the English language version of his adverts to promote Viagra and raise the awareness of impotency.[9] He revealed on Twitter that he provided a voiceover for the Ubisoft game Assassin's Creed III.[10]

Composer[edit]

As a composer and musician, Serafinowicz produced virtually all of the music for Look Around You, under the name of Gelg.[11]

Personal life[edit]

Serafinowicz is married to actress Sarah Alexander.[12] Their first child, a son named Sam, was born in March 2007. They also have a daughter named Phoebe. Peter's brother, James, is a writer and director,[13] and can be seen wearing his Liverpool Blue Coat School uniform at the beginning and end of each episode of the first series of Look Around You and is the person who always gets choked by the robot talk-show host Michael-6 during the Michael-6: The Robot Talk Show Host sketches of The Peter Serafinowicz Show. Serafinowicz's sister Helen is married to Graham Linehan.

In October 2007, Serafinowicz dropped his attempt to use the Human Rights Act to prevent the publication of details revealing his grandfather was the first man in Britain to go on trial for Nazi war crimes under the 1991 War Crimes Act. Szymon Serafinowicz Sr., was charged with allegedly murdering three Jews while a police chief during the Nazi-occupation of his native Poland in the Second World War. In 1997, the jury found Serafinowicz Sr. unfit for trial on grounds of dementia; he died later that year.[1]

Filmography[edit]

Film[edit]

Year Film Role Notes
1997 Doppelganger Various characters Short promo for Reebok[14]
1998 You Are Here Dr. Phil Phillips
1999 The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns George Fitzpatrick
1999 Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace Darth Maul
Battle Droid Commander
Gungan Scout
Voices
2003 Hello Friend Additional voices Short film
2004 Shaun of the Dead Pete
2004 The Calcium Kid Dave King
2006 Sixty Six Uncle Jimmy
Mr. Rubens, Snr.
Football commentator
2007 Run Fatboy Run TV commentator
2008 Tales of the Riverbank Various characters
2009 Couples Retreat Sctanley
2010 The Best and the Brightest Clark Janowitz
2011 Killing Bono Hammond
2014 Ibid Michael

Television[edit]

Year Film Role Notes
1998 Jack and the Beanstalk Second henchman
1998 Comedy Nation Various characters
1998 Europigeon Terry Wogan
1998 Alexei Sayle's Merry-Go-Round Narrator
1998–99 How Do You Want Me? Dean Yardley 12 episodes
1999 Murder Most Horrid Tony Frost Episode: "Dinner at Tiffany's"
1999 Smack the Pony Various characters 2 episodes
1999 Sermon from St Albion's Alastair Campbell Episode 2.1
1999 Hippies Robin
Narrator
2 episodes
1999–2001 Spaced Duane Benzie 3 episodes
2000 The Junkies Big Al
Narrator
2000 Black Books Howell Granger Episode: "The Big Lock-Out"
2001 World of Pub Garry
Various characters
6 episodes
2002 Ted and Alice Mark
2002 I'm Alan Partridge Tex Episode: "Never Say Alan Again"
2002 15 Storeys High Unknown 2 episodes
2002–05 Look Around You Scientist
Peter Packard
15 episodes
2003 Little Britain Interviewer Episode: "Biggest House of Cards"
2003–04 Hardware Kenny 12 episodes
2006 Our Thirties Austin
2006 Agatha Christie's Marple Walter Fane Episode: "Sleeping Murder"
2006 The IT Crowd Newsreader
Voiceover
2 episodes
2006 South Park Darth Chef Episode: "The Return of Chef"
2007–08 The Peter Serafinowicz Show Various characters 7 episodes
2008 Would I Lie to You? Himself Panellist
2009 Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle Voiceover 6 episodes
2009 Never Mind the Buzzcocks Himself Panellist
2010 Driver Dan's Story Train Driver Dan
2010 Running Wilde Fa'ad Shaoulin
2010 Whitechapel DCI Cazanove
2010 Would I Lie to You? Himself Panellist
2011 Archer George Spelvin Season 2, Episode 6
2011 NTSF:SD:SUV:: SAM Voice
2011 This is Jinsy Eric Dunt
The Great He
Episode: "Cupboards"
2011 Never Mind the Buzzcocks Himself Panellist
2012 Dawson Bros. Funtime Voiceover
2012 Bad Sugar Rolph Series 1
2012 Childrens Hospital Michael Caine Voice
Season 4.7: "British Hospital"
2012 American Dad! Joe / Goran the Mutilator Voice
Episode: "Killer Vacation"
2013 Axe Cop Dr. Doo Doo/Hitler Multiple roles
2013 Fit Brian Butterfield
2013 Anatole's Island Narrator Voiceover

Video games[edit]

Year Game Role
2003 Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior Captain Ardias
2005 Star Wars: Battlefront II Darth Maul
2012 Assassin's Creed III unknown
2013 Lego City Undercover Forrest Blackwell

Radio[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Fletcher, Ewan. "BBC star’s grandfather faced Nazi war crimes trial". Daily Mail. Retrieved 6 September 2012. 
  2. ^ Pettie, Andrew (30 September 2007). "The floor is his". The Daily Telegraph (London). Retrieved 22 May 2010. [dead link]
  3. ^ "Rose d'Or Winners 2008" (PDF). Rose d'Or AG. 2008-05-06. Archived from the original on 2008-05-30. Retrieved 2008-05-07. 
  4. ^ "Television Awards Nominations in 2009". BAFTA. 2009-03-24. Retrieved 2009-03-29. 
  5. ^ Say 'Hebbo' to Tarvuism!
  6. ^ http://www.newkerala.com/news/fullnews-29960.html[dead link]
  7. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (11 July 2010), "Peter Serafinowicz Joins 'Running Wilde'", Deadline Hollywood, retrieved 12 July 2010
  8. ^ Philby, Charlotte (2008-08-30). "My Secret Life: Peter Serafinowicz, Actor and comedian, age 36". London: www.independent.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-05-23. 
  9. ^ "Pelé signs deal...to raise the profile of viagra!". The Age. 8 February 2005. 
  10. ^ http://www.gamezone.com/products/assassin-s-creed-iii/news/peter-serafinowicz-has-a-role-in-new-assassin-s-creed
  11. ^ IMDb Composer credits
  12. ^ Philby, Charlotte (30 August 2008). "My Secret Life: Peter Serafinowicz". London: The Independent . Retrieved 2008-09-10. 
  13. ^ "James Serafinowicz". IMDB. 
  14. ^ http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/578032
  15. ^ http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=256575169

External links[edit]