Alan Tudyk Biography

Alan Tudyk: Biography

Alan Tudyk was born in El Paso, Texas and grew up in Plano, where he attended Plano Sr. High. In 1990, he went on to study drama at Lon Morris Jr. College. While there he was awarded the Academic Excellence Award for Drama. He was also named "Most Likely to Succeed" and "Sophomore Beau." During this time Alan was an active member of the Delta Psi Omega fraternity.

After leaving LMJC, Alan went on to study at the prestigious Juilliard conservatory, but left in 1996 before earning a degree.

After a number of smaller stage productions, and a small role in the movie Patch Adams, Alan landed his first Broadway role in 1999 with Epic Proportions. He quickly became a sought-after comedic actor, with roles in such films as 28 Days and A Knight�s Tale.

In 2002, Alan got the role of Wash, the wise-cracking pilot of Serenity on the short-lived series Firefly. Though the series lasted only eleven episodes, this may be Alan�s most well-known and loved role. No other networks would buy the failed series, but Universal Pictures began courting the creator Joss Whedon to produce a big screen version of the series.

While awaiting the final news of Firefly�s fate, Alan played the beloved "Steve the Pirate" in the movie Dodgeball and the voice of the robot "Sonny" in I, Robot.

In 2005 Alan finally reprised the role of Wash in Serenity, the feature film version of the series Firefly. The same year he went back to Broadway from June to November, taking over the role of Lancelot for Hank Azaria in the successful musical Spamalot.

Alan Tudyk: There aren't too many new actors like Alan Arkin or Gene Hackman who exist on their own frequency, do things in a way that nobody else could get away with. Those are the people who are inspirational to me.(edit)
Alan Tudyk: I was a real ham as a child. I'd insist on dressing up as a cowboy whenever the family went out for dinner. In high school, I was a menace. I'd fake nose bleeds and fainting spells to panic my teachers.(edit)
Alan Tudyk: In high school I wanted to be a hotel manager. If you're an actor, you don't have any money and I wanted to have a wife and children. Now I'm an actor with money but I still don't have a wife and children!(edit)
Alan Tudyk: Wash does a lot of this; I land the spaceship and I go "Be careful everybody!" and then they do these extraordinary things and they come back and I go, "Thank God you made it! Strap in, I'm going to fly!" I do the babysitting job on the spaceship.(edit)
Alan Tudyk: The suit itself (on I, Robot ) wasn't uncomfortable, as far as like a 'These shoes are uncomfortable, they give me a blister kind of thing.' It was more, 'Oh my God, you can see my package.' It was all out there. I've seen that kind of unitard before on dancers, on gymnasts and superheroes. People who typically have great bodies. If you put one on, and you don't have a really good body, it looks terrible.(edit)

He currently lives in New York City, but has a place in Los Angeles. While house hunting in LA Alan house-sat for Firefly and Serenity co-star Nathan Fillion. (edit)
Alan didn't go to his senior prom because the girl he was planning to take two-timed him with another guy -- and got pregnant!(edit)
According to the rest of the Firefly cast, Alan was consistantly the worst speaker of Chinese on the show! He puts this down to having to learn long and complicated sentences like "Mother of God and all her wacky nephews" in Mandarin.(edit)
In preparing for the role of Sonny in the film, I, Robot, Alan studied dance, movement, and mime to accurately portray movement that has been programmed in. His work was captured with green screen technology.(edit)
To prepare for the role of Steve The Pirate in Dodgeball, Alan joined a group of pirate role players called The Rumrunners and spent a week at Pirate Camp.(edit)
Alan plays the game Halo 2 online using X Box live. He was introduced to playing by Firefly co-star Nathan Fillion. (edit)
Alan played the character of "Wat" in A Knight's Tale.(edit)
According to Alan Tudyk in the "War Stories" (1x09) episode commentary, when he couldn't remember the Chinese dialogue for Firefly, he would just make it up and hope no one noticed. (edit)
In the Firefly episode "Out of Gas" (1x05) Wash wires up a large, red button for the captain to press if he needs the crew to return to the ship. When he shows it to Mal he says, "When your miracle gets here, just hit this button."

When Alan left the Firefly set after the series was cancelled, he took that button as a keepsake. When Joss Whedon announced that he would be searching for a way to bring the show back, as either a series or a feature film, Alan sent him the button with a note that said, again, "When your miracle gets here, just hit this button."(edit)
When Firefly was cancelled, Alan threw a "We Don't Work for FOX Anymore" party for the cast and crew.(edit)
While in college, Alan was active in the Delta Psi Omega fraternity.(edit)
Alan was awarded the Academic Excellence Award for Drama while he was studying Drama at Lon Morris Jr. College(edit)
Alan filled in for Hank Azaria in the Broadway show Spamalot while Azaria was filming the second season of Huff and working on the seventeenth season of The Simpsons. Actress Sara Ramirez, another performer in the production at this time, was in Alan's class (Group 26) at Juilliard.(edit)
Alan is 6' tall (1.83 m).(edit)
Smokey and the Bandit is Alan's favorite movie.(edit)
Alan once owned a 1964 Mustang, which he named "Old Sock." He considered it his most prized possession.(edit)