Peter Serafinowicz

Peter Szymon Serafinowicz (/sɛrəˈfɪnəvɪtʃ/; born 10 July 1972) is an English actor, comedian, musician, writer, and voice artist. He played Pete in Shaun of the Dead, and provided the voice of Darth Maul in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. He has also appeared in a variety of British and American comedy series.

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.

Serafinowicz at a panel for Look Around You, 2010 San Diego Comic-Con

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 movie 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. Though his character died in that film, the actor is said to make an appearance in the 2017 sequel. 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 British 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.

Serafinowicz is married to actress Sarah Alexander.

In October 2007, Serafinowicz dropped his attempt to use the Human Rights Act to prevent the publication of details revealing his Belarusian grandfather as the first man in Britain to go on trial for Nazi war crimes under the War Crimes Act. Szymon Serafinowicz Sr. was charged with murdering Jews while a police chief during the Nazi occupation of his native Belarus in World War II.

The case the state brought against alleged Nazi Szymon Serafinowicz Sr in 1997 also spoke of his involvement in the massacres of Jews around Minsk. Which had until that time a large Jewish population. During the 22 day court hearing sixteen-twenty witnesses presented evidence against alleged Nazi Szymon Serafinowicz they came from as far away as Siberia, Israel & the United States. Witness Regina Bedynska gave evidence that in 1941 she saw four Jewish men and a woman with a child running from a death squad. She then saw Serafinowicz raise his rifle and shoot the woman dead. The witnesses also included Serafinowicz's own interpreter during the war. Oswald Rufeisen, a Jew who posed as a Pole to save his own his life & secured interpreting work with Serafinowicz. Witness's claimed at trial to have seen Szymon Serafinowicz conducting house raids with Nazi soldiers to round up Jews. It was claimed that all Jews found were taken to a wooded area & shot. Specifically Serafinowicz was seen using a submachine gun at these post round-up murder sessions. His Jewish victims ncluded men, women, children & infants. At the end of the 22 day hearing the court concluded that there was a case to answer & they would proceed to trial. Serafinowicz's lawyer claimed he had dementia & that he was unfit for trial. He died the same year, 1997 at the age of 86 after he was found mentally unfit for trial by reason of dementia.After his death Lord Janner a Labour MP & a former war crimes investigator said in the Guardian newspaper of Serafinowicz

“The CPS had a huge file of powerful evidence against him [Szymon Serafinowicz]. He was accused of individual involvement in more than 3,000 murders.

“His defence was that he saved a few lives. But all Nazi killers saved families. It was like an insurance policy.

“Serafinowicz was typical. There were thousands of killers involved in carrying out the Holocaust – and not just Germans. The allegations accuse him of being a typical Nazi killer on a massive scale. I’m very sorry that more have not come to court.”

Peter Serafinowicz has repeatedly denied his grandfather was a Nazi criminal despite all the evidence presented to the courts.

Film

Television

Video games