Andrew James Tiernan (born on November 30, 1965 in Birmingham, UK) is an English actor.
He began acting with the Birmingham Youth Theatre and moved to London in 1984 to study a three-year Diploma in Acting at the Drama Centre London run by Christopher Fettes and Yat Malmgren.
He gained the role of Piers Gaveston in Derek Jarman’s controversial film of Christopher Marlowe's Edward II in 1991, after appearing in Lynda La Plante's award-winning drama Prime Suspect. In the same year, Andrew went on to star as Orlando and Oliver in Christine Edzard's version of Shakespeare's As You Like It playing alongside actors; James Fox and Cyril Cusack.
He is memorable for his role as the creepy Szalas of the Underground Movement, in Roman Polanski's award winning film The Pianist. His character neglects to look after Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrian Brody) and instead of feeding him, drinks his vodka and steals his watch.
He has also worked with Antonia Bird on a number of improvisational film productions, including Safe (Bafta - Best single drama), Face, Rehab and Spooks.
His acting career has now spanned over fifteen years, during which he has consistently worked and he has become a well-known figure amongst fans of high-quality British television drama. In 1993, he starred as the stuttering psychopath Sean Kerrigan in the episode "To Say I Love You" of Jimmy McGovern's Cracker. He's known as an actor's actor and a great character actor.[citation needed]
In 1998, in one such outstanding series Hornblower he played the ill-fated but memorable role of Bunting in the second episode "The Examination For Lieutenant". Other credits in television include Victor Carroon in The Quatermass Experiment and Kim Trent in Life on Mars. He recently appeared in an episode of popular crime drama Midsomer Murders as character Steve Bright, a photography enthusiast who became the victim of a deluded killer when he was brutally strangled with his own camera strap.
His theatre work has included Joe Penhall's The Bullet at the Donmar Warehouse, and a long-term collaboration with the Tony nominated Director; Wilson Milam (Director of Broadway hit; The Lieutenant of Inishmore) including Ché Walker's Flesh Wound at the Royal Court Theatre, London and two critically acclaimed productions of Sam Shepard plays; A Lie of the Mind at the Donmar Warehouse, London and True West at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre.
Andrew recently completed filming Zack Snyder's 300, an adaptation of the Frank Miller graphic novel (also called 300) based on the heroism of 300 elite Spartan warriors at the ancient Battle of Thermopylae in Greece, in which he portrays the legendary traitor Ephialtes. Filming took place from October 2005 - January 2006 in Montreal. In the role of Ephialtes, in film depicted as a completely deformed hunchback, Andrew was dressed in full body prosthetics which took 10 hours each day to complete.
