Peter Szymon Serafinowicz ( SERR-ə-FIN-oh-witch; 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 Tick in The Tick (2016), 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 (2016–2019). 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.
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Early life
Serafinowicz was born into a Catholic family in Liverpool's Gateacre suburb on 10 July 1972, the son of post office worker Catherine (née Geary) and scaffolder Szymon Serafinowicz Jr. 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. 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.
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. The family moved back to Gateacre when he was 14 and he attended St Francis Xavier's College in neighbouring Woolton. 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!"
Career
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.
Serafinowicz voiced Darth Maul in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, but was critical of how low his pay was. He reprised his voice acting role for Darth Maul in Solo: A Star Wars Story, though his performance went unused.
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.
Personal life
Serafinowicz met actress Sarah Alexander in 2002 when she was in a relationship with actor Gerald Harper, who was 40 years her senior. She left Harper for Serafinowicz and later married him. They lived in west London with their son and daughter. Alexander and Serafinowicz separated in 2025 after 23 years of marriage. Serafinowicz has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which was diagnosed when he was 40.
