Peter Serafinowicz

Peter Szymon Serafinowicz (/ˌsɛrəˈfɪnoʊwɪtʃ/ SERR-ə-FIN-oh-witch;^[1] Polish: [sɛrafʲiˈnɔvʲit͡ʂ]; born 10 July 1972) is an English actor, comedian and writer. He is known for his roles as the voice of Darth Maul in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), Pete in Shaun of the Dead (2004), Garthan Saal in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), the voice of Big Daddy in Sing (2016) and Sing 2 (2021), The Sommelier in John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) and Spitelout in the live-action remake How to Train Your Dragon (2025).

On television, Serafinowicz created and starred in the comedy shows Look Around You (2002–2005) and The Peter Serafinowicz Show (2007–2008). He also voiced characters and worked as a creative consultant on South Park (2006–2015), portrayed Edgar Covington in Parks and Recreation (2013–2015), voiced the Fisher King in Doctor Who (2015), and starred as the title character in the live-action adaptation series The Tick (2016). His other television work includes voicing characters in animated series such as Archer, Bob's Burgers, Rick and Morty, The Simpsons, American Dad!, and the second season of What If...?, reprising his live-action role as Garthan Saal.

Serafinowicz has voiced characters in video games such as Dark Souls II (2014), LittleBigPlanet 3 (2014), and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (2016). He has also directed music videos for acts such as Hot Chip and went viral in 2016 for political satire videos in which he dubbed over videos of Donald Trump with a "sassy" voice, a Cockney accent, and a posh English accent.

Serafinowicz was born into a Catholic family in Liverpool's Gateacre suburb on 10 July 1972,^[2][3][4] the son of post office worker Catherine (née Geary) and scaffolder Szymon Serafinowicz Jr.^[5] His father was born and raised in Surrey to a Polish mother and a Polish–Belarusian father and later moved to Liverpool as an adult.^[5] Serafinowicz has a brother, James, a film producer, and a sister Helen, a writer who was married to Irish comedy writer Graham Linehan from 2004 to 2020.^[6]

At the age of three, Serafinowicz moved with his family to the Belle Vale district of Liverpool where he attended Our Lady of the Assumption Primary School.^[7] The family moved back to Gateacre when he was 14 and he attended St Francis Xavier's College in neighbouring Woolton.^[8] He later said: "I had a very happy childhood, but Belle Vale was very rough. I was only about three when we moved there, but I can still remember it looking very shiny, and it was all landscaped. But it was a very poor area, and it became scruffy quite quickly. [...] Gateacre is traditionally seen as one of the posh areas of Liverpool [but] it wasn't really that much posher!"^[7]

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 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 sitcom How Do You Want Me?, written by Simon Nye.

In 1999, he had several guest appearances in the Channel 4 sitcom Spaced, playing protagonist Tim Bisley's (Simon Pegg) nemesis, Duane Benzie. He made another cameo appearance in the series when it returned in 2001.

In 2001, he took the lead in BBC Two sitcom World of Pub, playing the same character as he had in the show's run on Radio 4. He also appeared in The Junkies, an internet sitcom. In 2002, he played a scientist in the critically acclaimed Look Around You, a series of 10-minute spoofs of 1970s school science programmes such as ITV's series "Experiment". He co-wrote the show with Robert Popper, whom he met on the set of Spaced. The show returned in 2005 as a spoof of the BBC TV show Tomorrow's World, with Serafinowicz playing Peter Packard, one of the presenters.

In 2003, he appeared in another sitcom written by Nye, 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 romantic zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead, playing Pete, the uptight flatmate of principal characters Shaun and Ed. He 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.^[9] The series was also nominated for Best Comedy Programme at the 2009 BAFTA Television Awards.^[10]

Serafinowicz made 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), ITV drama series Agatha Christie's Marple (2006) and Parks and Recreation (2013).

His numerous guest appearances on panel shows for radio and television include regular appearances on The 99p Challenge, and 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 and website, based on a spoof religion "Tarvuism" for US network Adult Swim.^[11] 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.

On 28 July 2010, Popper and Serafinowicz added a new narration track to an episode of "Out Of Town" by Jack Hargreaves in order to create the spoof film "Markets of Britain, a short film by Lee Titt".^[12]

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,^[13] 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.^[14] In July 2013, he made his film directing debut with the dark comedy film I See What You Did There,^[15] which he wrote, along with Danny Wallace.^[16]

In 2014, it was announced that Serafinowicz would play the role of Crowley in the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's novel Good Omens.^[17]

That same year, he was 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 voice of The Fisher King.^[18]

During 2016, Serafinowicz created a series of YouTube videos entitled "Sassy Trump", in which he redubbed speeches given by Donald Trump with a camp voice.^[19] The videos were deleted from his YouTube channel in 2020, but have been re-uploaded by others. He has also created videos dubbing Trump with a Cockney accent and a posh English accent.^[20]

Due to Serafinowicz's impersonation of Paul McCartney, Matt Berry sang a duet with him on Berry's 2009 album Witchazel. The track in question was "Rain Came Down", where he was billed as Paul McCartney.^[21] He stars in the title role of Amazon's The Tick, the pilot for which premiered on 19 August 2016.^[22] In 2020 Serafinowicz guest starred in the second season of TBS' Miracle Workers.

In September and October 2023, Serafinowicz began touring the UK as his character Brian Butterfield from The Peter Serafinowicz Show in the (Placeholder Name) Tour.^[23] The show toured the UK again in May and June 2024 as Brian Butterfield's Call of Now. In March 2024, Serafinowicz played Tommy Dixon in the crime series The Gentlemen.

In February 2025, Serafinowicz played Johannes Van Der Velde in the BBC comedy drama series Amandaland.

Serafinowicz met actress Sarah Alexander in 2002 when she was in a relationship with actor Gerald Harper, who was 40 years her senior.^[24] She left Harper for Serafinowicz and later married him.^[24] They live in west London with their son and daughter.^[25] Serafinowicz has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which was diagnosed when he was 40.^[26]

In 1995, his Belarusian paternal grandfather, Szymon Serafinowicz Sr, was charged under the provisions of the War Crimes Act 1991 for the murder of three unnamed Jews in 1941–2 committed while he was a commander in the Nazi-controlled Belarusian Auxiliary Police in Mir, Belarus.^[5][27] He was later declared unfit to stand trial owing to advanced dementia.^[28]

• Peter Serafinowicz at IMDb
• "Peter Serafinowitz". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 31 May 2017.