Andrew Garfield

Andrew Garfield (born 20.8.1983)

Andrew Garfield is an American / British actor. He has appeared in radio, film, theatre and TV productions. Some of his more prominent roles include performances in Lions for Lambs, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and The Social Network.

Andrew Garfield: Childhood

Andrew Garfield was born in Los Angeles, California. His mother is British (from Essex) and his father is from California. When he was three years old, the family moved to England. The Garfield family are Jewish. After running a small interior design business, his mother became a teaching assistant and his father became head coach of Guilford City Swimming Club.

After attending the City of London's Freemen School, Garfield trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, where he graduated in 2004. As a teenager, he took acting classes in Guildford and appeared in a production of Bugsy Malone. 2004 saw Garfield win a MEN Theatre award for his performance in Kes at Manchester's Royal Exchange.

Andrew Garfield: Acting Career

In 2007, Garfield appeared in Lions for Lambs, in the role of an American University student. The all-star cast also featured Tom Cruise, Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. The same year, he also starred in The Other Boleyn Girl, alongside Natalie Portman, Eric Bana, Scarlett Johansson and Kristin Scott Thomas. He also featured in Boy A, a British film adaptation of Jonathan Trigell's novel.

Two years later, Andrew Garfield could be seen in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. The ambitious project was the brainchild of Terry Gilliam (a former Monty Python stalwart) but was thwarted by the death of one of its lead actors, Heath Ledger. Gilliam decided against abandoning the project and instead drafted in Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell to film the remaining scenes. The film also starred Lily Cole, Tom Waits and Verne Troyer. Andrew Garfield appeared in Vogue with Lily Cole, in his modelling debut: a pictorial re-telling of Hansel and Gretel.

On TV, Andrew Garfield stared in the highly acclaimed Red Riding trilogy, an adaptation of David Peace's writings. Garfield starred in the first episode of the trilogy, alongside Sean Bean and Rebecca Hall. Other actors featured in the trilogy include Paddy Considine, Shaun Dooley and Robert Sheehan.

2010 saw Andrew Garfield star in Never Let Me Go, a British sci-fi drama, with Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan. The film premiered at the London Film Festival and was well-received. Also that year, Garfield featured in The Social Network. The film details the history of the creators of Facebook and the court cases regarding its legal origins. The Social Network also stars Justin Timberlake, Jesse Eisenberg and Brenda Song. The script was based on Ben Mezrich's book, The Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, a Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal.

Andrew Garfield has been selected to play the role of Spider-Man in the 2012 release, directed by Marc Webb.