Andrew Tiernan

Andrew James Tiernan (born 30 November 1965 in Ladywood, Birmingham, Warwickshire) is an English actor. Tiernan 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. 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, including Ché Walker'sFlesh Wound at the Royal Court Theatre and two critically acclaimed productions of Sam Shepardplays; A Lie of the Mind at the Donmar Warehouse and True West at the Bristol Old Vic. Tiernan played 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, he 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 then went on to star in the 2001 thriller, Mr. In Between, directed by Paul Sarossy. He played Szalas in Roman Polanski's film The Pianist. Tiernan starred in Zack Snyder's 300, an adaptation of the Frank Miller graphic novel, in which he portrays Ephialtes. Filming took place from October 2005 to January 2006 in Montreal. To portray Ephialtes, Tiernan dressed in full body prosthetics which took 10 hours each day to complete. Tiernan began working on his directing debut in 2012, with the feature film Dragonfly.