Andrew "Amazing" Garfield

Andrew Russell Garfield is a British and American citizen born on August 20, 1983 in Los Angeles but raised in Surrey. When he was three, his family moved to Britain and was brought up in a middle class Jewish home. He is a gymnast and a swimmer during his early years. He had originally intended to study business, but became interested in acting at the age of sixteen.

He started attending acting classes in Guildford, Surrey when he was twelve, and appeared in a youth theatre production of Bugsy Malone. He also joined a small youth theatre workshop group in Epsom, and began working primarily as a stage actor. In 2004 he won a Manchester Evening News Theatre Award for Best Newcomer, for his performance in Kes at Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre. He played the role of Romeo a year after, and won the Outstanding Newcomer Award at the 2006 Evening Standard Theatre Awards.

In 2005 he made his debut in British televisions where he appeared in Channel 4 teenage drama Sugar Rush. He then acquires the attention of the public as he appeared in the third series of BBC’s Doctor Who, in 2007. He won as the 2008 British Academy Television Award for Best Actor when he portrayed a notorious killer trying to find a new life after prison in the Channel 4 drama Boy A.

He made his feature film debut in the 2007 ensemble drama Lions for Lambs, playing an American university student. In 2010, he played the character of tommy D in the British dystopian science fiction drama film Never Let Me Go, an adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2005 novel of the same title. It was then followed by a drama film entitled The Social Network, which was released on October 2010. He received wider recognition and numerous nominations for his critically acclaimed performance in the film, including the BAFTA Awards for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, and Rising Star, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role. In 2010, he was cast as Peter Parker in Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man. His performance as Peter Parker / Spider-Man in the superhero film The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), a reboot of the Spider-Man film series, was generally well received. The sequel, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, is scheduled for release in 2014, with Garfield set to reprise the role. He is often noted by critics for his portrayals of conflicted, complex characters.