Biography

Alan Wray Tudyk was born March 16th 1971 in El Paso Texas. However, he grew up in Plano Texas, attended Vines High School and Plano Senior High School.

College lead him to Lon Morris Junior College studying of course Drama. He was an active member of Delta Psi Omega while at college, and was awarded the Academic Excellence Award for drama and named ‘most likely to succeed’. When Alan was at Lon Morris College he did stand up comedy in the ‘Holiday Inn’ bar in Jacksonville, Texas. He was paid $50 for an hour of stand up. The bar was the only one in town and nobody told the people there shooting pool and dancing there was going to be a show and when he stepped onto the dance floor and the bar manager cut off the music the crowd got pretty hostile. One cowboy threw his boot at Alan, but al pressed on and before the hour was over he had them rolling under the pool tables laughing. In 1993 he began studying drama at Juilliard, though he left before earning himself a degree.

Alan’s love of comedic performance started early, and he founded numerous comedy troupes including the ‘Court Jesters Improv Troupe’ and ‘Rubber Chicken Improv Troupe’. His love of theatre continued as he started to be known for his stage work. He first made his mark with work on stage in both regional and Off-Broadway productions before marking his Broadway debut with 1999's ‘Epic Proportions’. Another earlier stage credit that proved his versatility and skills he had gained as a great improv actor was his work in 'Bunny Bunny - Gilda Radner: A Sort of Romantic Comedy'.

In 1997 Alan made his film debut in ’35 Miles From Normal’ his film career continued, with a succession of small roles, in big films, including ‘Patch Adams’ with Robin Williams. However, he soon stole the show when he appeared as ‘Pirate Steve’ in the Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn film ‘Dodgeball’.

His roles have continued to grow, from ‘Sonny’ the Robot in the blockbuster ‘I Robot’, to one of the leads in the television series Firefly, and it’s spin off feature film Serenity. No matter what Alan does next, we can all be sure it will be both hilarious, and amazing.

Trivia

• Alan's most prized possession used to be an old 1965 Mustang, which he affectionately, yet interestingly named 'Old Sock' which he later wrote off while playing tag with cars.
• His favourite film is Smokey and the Bandit.
• Alan once lived at Nathan Fillion’s house in LA for a few months when he was looking for somewhere to live.
• Alan plays the game Halo 2 online using XBox live. He was introduced to playing by Nathan Fillion.
• When Firefly was cancelled, he threw a ‘we don’t work for Fox’ party.
• Alan smokes, his brand is Marlboro Lights
• 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 that same evening! Alan's comment on this: "If she would have just... kept it in her pants she would have had a different life! But she kept putting me off, about prom night. Then I found out from her best friend."
• As a child Alan always insisted on dressing up as a cowboy whenever the family went out for dinner.
• In high school, Alan was a menace. He’d fake nose bleeds and fainting spells to panic his teachers.
• In high school Alan wanted to be a hotel manager.
• 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.
• In preparing for the role of Sonny in I Robot, Alan studied dance, movement, and mime to accurately portray movement that has been programmed in.
• 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.
• While in college, Alan was active in the Delta Psi Omega fraternity.
• Alan was awarded the Academic Excellence Award for Drama while he was studying Drama at Lon Morris Jr. College.
• Alan is 6' tall (1.83 m).
• When younger, Alan used to hang out with skaters.
• Alan has a younger sister named Shannon, who is an artist specialized in assemblages.
• In the Firefly episode 'Out of Gas' 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, Alan sent him the button with a card that said, "When your miracle gets here, just hit this button."
• When asked about what Alan would be doing if he wasn't an actor, Alan answered as follows: "Canoe rentals would be great. I could say things like: "The oars are free with the canoe rental," and: "Here have a lifejacket" I can say those things really easily. I could do this. It's a seasonal job, so I don't know how much money I would make, but that's kinda my dream other job."
• A group of very devoted fans (also known as the 'Spudyks') got a star named after Alan. The star is called 'Alan's Serenity'.