Andrew Garfield

Info

Full Name: Andrew Russell Garfield
Date of birth: August 20, 1983 (43 years old)
Location: Los Angeles, California
Country: USA

Andrew Garfield has been active for 20 years, participating in 22 movies that average a 7.0/10 score.

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Tráiler en VOSE de 'Harry Potter' T1

Biography

Andrew Garfield was born in Los Angeles, though hardly anyone takes him for an American. He was three when the family moved to England, and he grew up in Epsom, Surrey, with an English mother who worked as a nursery teaching assistant and a Californian father who ended up coaching the Guildford swimming club. That's where the dual citizenship comes from, and the accent that still confuses half of Hollywood.

He was born on 20 August 1983 and his full name is Andrew Russell Garfield. He started acting classes at nine, more out of shyness than any early calling, and graduated from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in 2004. His first professional life was on stage: he played Billy in 'Kes' at Manchester's Royal Exchange, and in 2006 the Evening Standard Theatre Awards named him outstanding newcomer.

From 'Doctor Who' to a BAFTA

British television came before film. He turned up in 'Sugar Rush' and, in 2007, in the two 'Doctor Who' episodes that took the Daleks to New York. The same year brought 'Boy A', a Channel 4 film in which he played a young man released from prison under a new identity after killing as a child. It won him the BAFTA for best actor.

That same year he also turned up in 'Lions for Lambs', acting opposite Robert Redford in a film that also featured Meryl Streep. Then came Terry Gilliam's 'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus', shot around the death of Heath Ledger, and Channel 4's 'Red Riding' trilogy.

In 2010 he made two films that moved him somewhere else entirely. One was 'Never Let Me Go', directed by Mark Romanek, with Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley. The other was 'The Social Network'.

In David Fincher's film he played Eduardo Saverin, the partner slowly squeezed out of Facebook by the characters played by Jesse Eisenberg and Justin Timberlake. It was his first properly big role, and it brought him BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations.

Spider-Man, twice

Sony picked him to reboot the franchise in 'The Amazing Spider-Man' (2012), directed by Marc Webb, and he came back for 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2'. He met Emma Stone on the first one, and they were together from 2011 to 2015.

Sony's plans fell apart and the series was scrapped. He used the gap for smaller films: in '99 Homes' (2014), by Ramin Bahrani, he's a father evicted from his home who ends up working for the man who threw him out, played by Michael Shannon. He co-produced it as well.

The year of Gibson and Scorsese

2016 changed his career. First he was Desmond Doss, the conscientious objector who carried dozens of wounded men to safety at Okinawa without picking up a weapon, in 'Hacksaw Ridge', directed by Mel Gibson. It brought him his first Oscar nomination.

Months later came Martin Scorsese's 'Silence', with him as a Portuguese Jesuit searching for his mentor in 17th century Japan, alongside Adam Driver and Liam Neeson. To prepare he went through the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius, a full year of work with a priest.

After that he played the disability campaigner Robin Cavendish, paralysed by polio, in 'Breathe' (2017), and took the lead in the cult oddity 'Under the Silver Lake' (2018).

Broadway, the Tony and his mother's death

He never let go of theatre. In 2012 he played Biff in 'Death of a Salesman' on Broadway and was nominated for a Tony, and in 2017 he was Prior Walter in the National Theatre's 'Angels in America', which brought an Olivier nomination. When the production transferred to New York in 2018, he won the Tony for best actor in a play.

2021 was his busiest year. He played the televangelist Jim Bakker opposite Jessica Chastain in 'The Eyes of Tammy Faye', sang and danced as Jonathan Larson in 'Tick, Tick... Boom!', the directing debut of Lin-Manuel Miranda, and put the suit back on for 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' alongside Tom Holland and Tobey Maguire.

'Tick, Tick... Boom!' won him the Golden Globe for best actor in a musical or comedy and a second Oscar nomination. Behind all of it sat a bereavement. His mother, Lynn, died of pancreatic cancer in 2019 while he was shooting the Tammy Faye film, and Chastain and the producers rearranged the schedule so he could spend ten days with her in England.

He's talked about that loss ever since, without much armour. "Grief is unexpressed love," he said in an interview, a line he's repeated in interviews and at charity events since.

A Mormon detective, Greengrass and Sam Altman

In 2022 he led 'Under the Banner of Heaven', the FX miniseries about a murder inside a Mormon family in Utah, and picked up his first Emmy nomination. Then he went back to romance in 'We Live in Time' (2024), with Florence Pugh, directed by John Crowley from a script by Nick Payne.

In 2025 he worked with Luca Guadagnino for the first time on 'After the Hunt', playing the professor accused of assault who leaves the character of Julia Roberts badly compromised, with Ayo Edebiri as the student who reports him.

This year he has three releases. In March he played a harried dad in 'The Magic Faraway Tree', the Enid Blyton adaptation he shares with Claire Foy. On 11 September 'The Uprising' reached cinemas, with Paul Greengrass casting him as the ploughman who leads the peasants' revolt against Richard II.

December brings 'Artificial', Guadagnino again, with Garfield as Sam Altman in the middle of the AI arms race and Ike Barinholtz as Elon Musk. It premieres at the New York Film Festival in October first.

He lives in north London, near Hampstead Heath, and supports Arsenal. Since 2025 he's been linked with the actress Monica Barbaro, though he won't confirm it: he says he never discusses his private life, and so far he's stuck to that. Next up is 'Wild Things', the Apple series about Siegfried and Roy that he's filmed with Jude Law.