Andrew Garfield

Andrew Garfield
Born	Andrew Russell Garfield 8/20/1983
Birthplace	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Nationality	British, American
Occupation	Actor
Education	Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
Awards	Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play (2018), Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Musical or Comedy (2022)

Andrew Russell Garfield (born 20 August 1983) is an English and American actor whose career has spanned stage, television, and film across a range of genres. Born in Los Angeles and raised in Surrey, England, Garfield trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama before launching a career that would bring him from the London fringe theatre circuit to Hollywood leading roles and Broadway stages. He first attracted significant attention for his portrayal of a juvenile convict in the Channel 4 television film Boy A (2007), a performance that earned him a BAFTA Television Award for Best Actor. Garfield went on to gain international recognition for his role as Eduardo Saverin in David Fincher's The Social Network (2010) and subsequently starred as Peter Parker / Spider-Man in Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man films (2012–2014). His later work demonstrated a commitment to challenging, varied material: he received Academy Award nominations for his performances in Hacksaw Ridge (2016), directed by Mel Gibson, and Tick, Tick... Boom! (2021), directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda. On stage, Garfield won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his portrayal of Prior Walter in the Broadway revival of Angels in America (2018). His accolades also include a Golden Globe Award, and he has received nominations for three British Academy Film Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2022.

Early Life

Andrew Russell Garfield was born on 20 August 1983 in Los Angeles, California. His father, Richard Garfield, is American and his mother, Lynn, is English. His father worked as a swimming coach and later became the head of a small interior design business, while his mother served as a teaching assistant at a nursery school. The family moved from Los Angeles to Surrey, England, when Garfield was three years old, and he was raised in Epsom.

Garfield holds both British and American citizenship. He has described himself as being proud of his Jewish heritage; his father is of Eastern European Jewish descent, while his mother is English. In a 2025 appearance, Garfield discussed exploring his Jewish ancestry in greater depth, describing the experience as akin to "being in a treasure hunt."

As a child growing up in Epsom, Garfield attended Priory Preparatory School, which later listed him among its notable former pupils. He developed an early interest in performing, which he has attributed in part to the experience of gymnastics and swimming as a child, activities that gave him an awareness of physicality and movement. Garfield has spoken about feeling somewhat out of place as an American-born child growing up in England, an experience that he has said contributed to a sense of being between two identities.

Education

Garfield studied at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, one of the oldest drama schools in the United Kingdom. He graduated from the institution and began pursuing professional acting work shortly thereafter. His formal training in classical and contemporary theatre at the school provided the foundation for a career that would encompass both stage and screen work. Garfield has credited his time at drama school with shaping his approach to character work and his commitment to the craft of acting.

Career

Early stage and television work (2004–2009)

Garfield began his professional acting career on the stage, working in theatre productions in London shortly after graduating from drama school. He appeared in productions at venues including the Royal Court Theatre and the Manchester Royal Exchange, building a reputation in British theatre during the mid-2000s.

His early television work included a guest appearance in the long-running BBC science fiction series Doctor Who, in which he appeared in the 2007 two-part episodes "Daleks in Manhattan" and "Evolution of the Daleks." Garfield later described the experience as an honour, noting the cultural significance of the programme in Britain.

Garfield's breakout role came with the Channel 4 television film Boy A (2007), in which he starred as Jack Burridge, a young man attempting to reintegrate into society after serving time in a juvenile detention facility for a violent crime committed as a child. The performance was widely praised by critics and earned Garfield the BAFTA Television Award for Best Actor, bringing him to the attention of both British and American casting directors and filmmakers.

During this period, Garfield also appeared in the 2007 film Lions for Lambs, directed by Robert Redford, in which he played a college student alongside Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise. Though the film received mixed reviews, Garfield's performance drew notice and marked his entry into Hollywood productions.

Film breakthrough and The Social Network (2010)

The year 2010 proved pivotal for Garfield's career. He appeared in Never Let Me Go, an adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's dystopian novel, alongside Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley. The film, directed by Mark Romanek, told the story of young people raised in an alternate England for the purpose of organ donation. Garfield portrayed Tommy, one of the three central characters, and discussed in interviews the emotional intensity required by the role.

Later that year, Garfield appeared in David Fincher's The Social Network, a dramatisation of the founding of Facebook. Garfield portrayed Eduardo Saverin, the co-founder of the social media company who became entangled in a legal dispute with Mark Zuckerberg, played by Jesse Eisenberg. The performance earned Garfield a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor and a Golden Globe nomination, and established him as a leading figure among his generation of actors. Fincher later discussed his casting choices for the film, noting Garfield's ability to convey vulnerability and intelligence simultaneously. The Guardian identified Garfield as one of the top emerging British film talents of the year.

The Amazing Spider-Man films (2012–2014)

In 2010, it was announced that Garfield had been cast as Peter Parker / Spider-Man in Marc Webb's reboot of the Spider-Man franchise for Sony Pictures, succeeding Tobey Maguire in the role. The Amazing Spider-Man was released in 2012 and grossed over $750 million worldwide. Garfield starred opposite Emma Stone, who played Gwen Stacy, and the pair's on-screen chemistry was noted by critics and audiences alike. Garfield brought a more overtly emotional and physically energetic interpretation to the character, which he discussed at length in promotional interviews.

The sequel, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, was released in 2014. While the film performed reasonably at the box office, it received more divided critical reception than its predecessor, and planned further sequels were shelved as Sony later entered into a partnership with Marvel Studios to recast the character. Garfield reprised the role of Spider-Man years later in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), a Marvel Cinematic Universe film directed by Jon Watts, which featured the multiverse concept to bring together three iterations of the character played by Garfield, Tobey Maguire, and Tom Holland. Garfield's return in the film was received with enthusiasm by audiences and critics. In 2025, a Collider writer argued at length that Garfield's portrayal was the strongest of the three actors' performances in the role, despite the uneven quality of the Amazing Spider-Man films themselves. In 2026, Sony confirmed that the Spider-Man film series would be recast following the upcoming Brand New Day instalment, marking the end of an era for all three actors who had played the character.

Broadway debut and Death of a Salesman (2012)

Concurrent with his work on the first Spider-Man film, Garfield made his Broadway debut in 2012 in the revival of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, directed by Mike Nichols. He played Biff Loman opposite Philip Seymour Hoffman as Willy Loman. The production was critically acclaimed, and Garfield received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance.

Hacksaw Ridge and Silence (2016)

In 2016, Garfield starred in two major films that showcased the depth of his range. The first was Hacksaw Ridge, directed by Mel Gibson, in which Garfield portrayed Desmond Doss, a conscientious objector who served as a combat medic during the Battle of Okinawa in World War II and became the first conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor. Garfield underwent significant physical and emotional preparation for the role. The performance earned him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Garfield addressed questions about working with Gibson, who had previously been the subject of controversy over antisemitic comments, stating that he was "proud to be Jewish" and that his decision to take the role was based on the story's importance. In a separate interview, Garfield reflected on the themes of war and faith that the film explored, describing the absurdity of war as a central concern.

The second major release of 2016 was Silence, directed by Martin Scorsese, in which Garfield played a seventeenth-century Jesuit priest travelling to Japan during a period of Christian persecution. Garfield has spoken about the intensive spiritual preparation he undertook for the role, including extended periods of fasting and Jesuit spiritual exercises. The film was received as a meditative and demanding work, and Garfield's commitment to the part was noted by critics and collaborators.

Angels in America and Tony Award (2017–2018)

In 2017, Garfield starred as Prior Walter in the National Theatre's revival of Tony Kushner's Angels in America in London's West End. The two-part play, set during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, is considered one of the defining works of twentieth-century American drama. Garfield's performance as Prior, a young man diagnosed with AIDS who receives prophetic visions, earned him a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor.

The production subsequently transferred to Broadway in 2018, where Garfield reprised the role. His performance was again critically acclaimed, and he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play, one of the highest honours in American theatre. The role represented a significant artistic achievement in Garfield's career and demonstrated his ability to sustain a demanding, physically and emotionally exhausting performance over the course of a two-part, seven-hour production.

Tick, Tick... Boom! and later film work (2021–present)

In 2021, Garfield starred as Jonathan Larson, the composer and lyricist of Rent, in Tick, Tick... Boom!, a film adaptation of Larson's autobiographical musical. The film, directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda in his feature directorial debut, depicted Larson's struggles as a young artist in New York City in the early 1990s. Garfield learned to sing and play piano for the role, and his performance earned him a second Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.

That same year, Garfield appeared in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, playing the televangelist Jim Bakker opposite Jessica Chastain in the title role. He also, as noted above, reprised his role as Spider-Man in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

In 2022, Garfield starred in the FX on Hulu crime drama miniseries Under the Banner of Heaven, based on the book by Jon Krakauer. He played a devout Mormon detective investigating a murder that leads him to question his faith. The performance earned him a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.

Garfield's subsequent film work has continued to span genres. Under the Silver Lake (2018), directed by David Robert Mitchell, was a neo-noir mystery, and We Live in Time (2024) was a romantic drama. In 2025, Garfield worked on After the Hunt, in which he plays a Yale philosophy professor. In the film's first scene, his character is involved in an explosive encounter, and Garfield discussed the thematic complexities of the project in an interview with The Cut.

In early 2026, Garfield was photographed alongside Jude Law in Las Vegas, both transformed into the illusionists Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn for an upcoming film about the famous duo Siegfried and Roy. The first-look images showed dramatic physical transformations for both actors.

Personal Life

Garfield has maintained a relatively private personal life throughout his career. He dated actress Emma Stone for several years after they met on the set of The Amazing Spider-Man; the two were frequently photographed together between approximately 2011 and 2015. Stone made a rare public comment about Garfield in August 2025, describing their time working together as a "special time" in her life.

In May 2025, Garfield was photographed at a beach in Malibu with actress Monica Barbaro, though neither has publicly confirmed the nature of their relationship.

Garfield holds both British and American citizenship. He was born in Los Angeles but raised in England, and has described feeling a connection to both countries. He has spoken publicly about his Jewish heritage on his father's side and his interest in exploring his family's ancestry. He has also spoken about spirituality and its influence on his work, particularly in the context of his roles in Silence and Hacksaw Ridge, both of which required significant engagement with questions of faith.

Recognition

Garfield's work across stage, film, and television has been recognised with numerous awards and nominations. His major accolades include:

• Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play (2018) — for Angels in America
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (2022) — for Tick, Tick... Boom!
• BAFTA Television Award for Best Actor (2008) — for Boy A
• Academy Award nominations for Best Actor — for Hacksaw Ridge (2017) and Tick, Tick... Boom! (2022)
• Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor — for Angels in America (2017)
• Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play — for Death of a Salesman (2012)
• Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie — for Under the Banner of Heaven (2022)
• BAFTA Film Award nominations — including for The Social Network (2011)

In 2022, Time magazine named Garfield one of the 100 most influential people in the world on its annual Time 100 list, recognising both his artistic achievements and his cultural impact.

Legacy

Garfield's career is notable for its range and for his movement between commercial blockbusters and smaller, artistically ambitious projects. His ability to convincingly inhabit roles as diverse as a superhero, a conscientious objector, a Jesuit priest, a composer, a televangelist, and a man confronting the AIDS crisis has distinguished him among actors of his generation. His commitment to theatre work, including sustained runs in demanding productions such as Angels in America, reflects an approach to acting that prioritises artistic challenge over commercial considerations.

His portrayal of Spider-Man has remained a subject of enduring discussion among fans and critics. Despite the mixed reception of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and the discontinuation of that film series, Garfield's interpretation of Peter Parker has been reassessed in a more favourable light, particularly following his return in Spider-Man: No Way Home. The emotional depth and physicality he brought to the role have been cited as distinguishing features of his version of the character.

On stage, his Tony Award-winning performance in Angels in America is considered one of the defining interpretations of Prior Walter, a role that has been performed by several prominent actors since the play's premiere in the early 1990s. His willingness to take on roles that require extensive preparation — learning to sing for Tick, Tick... Boom!, undertaking Jesuit spiritual exercises for Silence, and physically transforming for Hacksaw Ridge — has been noted as characteristic of his approach to acting.

As of 2026, Garfield continues to work across film and stage, with upcoming projects including the Siegfried and Roy biographical film with Jude Law and After the Hunt.