Andy was born and brought up in Ruislip, West London.
He grew up wanting to be a painter/graphic artist and eventually studied
visual arts at Lancaster University. Being so close to the Lake District,
it just so happened that it also enabled him to follow his other passion
in life, mountaineering!
Whilst at university, he became heavily involved in the theatre studies
department, which had a broad-based approach including design, lighting,
staging, as well as history and acting theory. After performing in a production
of Barrie Keefe’s play Gotcha, Andy decided that he wanted to become
an actor.
In 1985 he began working at the Dukes playhouse, Lancaster,
where he started to learn his craft. Under the direction of Jonathan Petherbridge,
he performed in fourteen plays on the trot, playing a wide variety of
characters in plays including Volpone, The Good Person of Szechwan, and
A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
After that, Andy joined a number of touring companies, including Paines
Plough and Hull Truck (Bouncers), then joined David Freeman’s company
at the Lyric, Hammersmith, working on Freeeman’s epic production
of Faust. In 1989 Andy began his long association with the Royal Exchange
Theatre, Manchester, in Braham Murray’s production of Macbeth. He
would return many times to appear in plays such as She Stoops to Conquer,
Your Home in the West, and Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature
of Love. He played the emcee in Cabaret at the Sheffield Crucible, Macheath
in The Threepenny Opera for the Bubble Theatre, Jerry (the Jack Lemmon
role) in the musical version of Some Like It Hot at the West Yorkshire
Playhouse. He was awarded the Manchester Evening News Best Actor award
for his performance in Steven Berkoff’s two hander, Decadence.
In the ‘90s Andy began to make his mark on the London Stage, particularly
at the Royal Court Theatre, receiving critical success for his roles as
Dogboy in Hush , The fool in Max Stafford Clark’s production of King
Lear, and as Potts in the original production of Jez Butterwoth’s
hit play Mojo.
At the same time his career in film and television began to gain momentum.
On television, his first breakthrough role was Tom in the hit geordie
gangster series Finney. Over the following years he played a wide range
of roles in many TV dramas, including Grushko, The Jump, The Arabian Nights,
Touching Evil, Shooting the Past, and was recently highly acclaimed for
his performance as Bill Sykes in Alan Bleasedale’s adaptation of
the Dickens classic, Oliver Twist. On film, Andy began to make a name
for himself in movies like Mike Leigh’s Career Girls, The screen
adaptation of Mojo, Among Giants and Stella Does Tricks.
He returned to the stage in 1997 to play Phil in the British premiere
of David Rabe’s hit play Hurlyburly for Peter Hall's company at The
Old Vic. It was a great success and transferred to the West End (Queen's
Theatre).
As John D'Auban in Topsy Turvy Over the next few years Andy concentrated
on film work, spending the best part of one year creating the character
of John Dauban, Gilbert and Sullivan's choreographer in Mike Leigh's Topsy
Turvy. Other roles included Jacobin revolutionary John Thelwall, in Julien
Temple's film Pandaemonium , and as Mel, Michael Caine’s minder in
Shiner directed by John Irvine.
In 1999, Andy was offered the prize role of Gollum in Peter Jackson’s
epic film trilogy version of J.R.R. Tolkien's saga The Lord of the Rings
-- Although the principal photography for all three films took place over
18 months, Andy spent much of 2002 in post-production due to the complex
technical nature of bringing Gollum to the screen in The Two Towers, and
will repeat this process in 2003 for The Return of The King. The role
has been one of the most psychologically complex/physically demanding/technically
challenging roles to date.
In between trips to New Zealand, Andy played Factory Records producer
Martin Hannett, in Michael Winterbottom’s Madchester film 24 Hour
Party People, and Private Quinn in Michael Bassett’s debut feature,
World War I horror film Deathwatch. He has also returned to the stage
twice -- as Jake in Sam Shepard’s play A Lie of the Mind directed
by Wilson Milam at the Donmar warehouse, and most recently to play Iago
in Braham Murray's production of Othello at the Royal Exchange Theatre,
Manchester.
Andy has always continued to paint, and is pursuing his goal to work on
the other side of the camera -- in September 2001 he wrote and directed
his debut short film Snake. He is currently involved in developing several
feature film projects with his co-producer Paul Viragh.
Andy lives in North London with his wife, actress Lorraine Ashbourne and
their two young children Ruby and Sonny.
