Alexander Richard "Alex" Pettyfer is an English actor and model.
He appeared in school plays and on television before being cast as Alex Rider, the main
character in the 2006 film version of Stormbreaker; Pettyfer was nominated for a Young Artist
Award and an Empire Award for his role.
He has been seen as a model in several advertising campaigns for Burberry.
His next two starring roles were in the 2011 films I Am Number Four, a science fiction
action adventure, and Beastly, a modernised retelling of Beauty and the Beast.
Pettyfer also starred in the 2012 movie Magic Mike, and played a supporting role in 2013's
film The Butler.
He appeared in the 2014 romantic drama film Endless Love.
Early life Pettyfer was born in Stevenage, Hertfordshire,
the son of Lee Ireland, an interior decorator, and Richard Pettyfer, an actor.
He has a younger half-brother, James Ireland, a junior tennis player, from his mother's
re-marriage to Michael Ireland, a property developer.
Pettyfer was brought up in Slough, Berkshire, and began his career as a child fashion model
at the age of seven, for Gap, after meeting Ralph Lauren in a toy store in New York.
He also did advertisements for some yogurt brands.
His first commercial was at age six.
As a schoolboy, he performed in plays, including in the role of Willy Wonka in a production
of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Jack in his school play "Jack and the Beanstalk"
and Robin Hood in the adaptation of The Adventures of Robin Hood.
Pettyfer was educated at two junior independent schools: The Mall School, a small school in
Twickenham, followed by the Lambrook Haileybury school in Berkshire.
He subsequently attended two other independent boarding schools: Millfield School in Street,
Somerset and Shiplake College near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire.
After his GCSEs, he left Shiplake College to attend the independent Sylvia Young Theatre
School in London.
Career In 2005, after a modelling career, Pettyfer
made his professional acting début in the British television production of Tom Brown's
Schooldays, playing the lead character, Tom Brown; he received positive reviews for the
role.
In June 2005, he was cast in his most prominent role so far, that of teenage MI6 spy Alex
Rider in the film Stormbreaker, based on the novel by Anthony Horowitz.
He was one of 500 who auditioned for the role.
Pettyfer chose to appear in the film over a role in the film Eragon, noting that he
preferred Stormbreaker because it would be filmed in Britain, in the Isle of Man, while
Eragon would film in Hungary; Pettyfer is afraid of flying, and he liked the looks of
the cast for Stormbreaker.
Stormbreaker was released on 21 July 2006 in the United Kingdom, on 6 October 2006 in
the United States and on 21 September 2006 in Australia.
One review of Pettyfer's performance described him as playing the role with an "earnest intensity",
although another noted that he "isn't quite at ease as an actor".
Media reports specified that the film was expected to make Pettyfer a "teen idol".
Pettyfer will not reprise the role if there is another Alex Rider film because he is now
too mature for the role.
He next appeared in Wild Child, a film set in California, Kent and Yorkshire part of
which took place at Cobham Hall Girls' School in Kent.
He played school boy Freddie Kingsley and he co-starred with Emma Roberts.
In 2009, he played the callous ringleader of a group of cool but cruel teenagers who
are picked off one by one by the ghost of one of their former victims, in the horror-comedy,
Tormented.
He starred in the film Beastly, based on the novel by Alex Flinn, alongside Mary-Kate Olsen,
Vanessa Hudgens, and Neil Patrick Harris.
He finished filming on 13 August 2009, and the film was released on 4 March 2011.
Pettyfer portrayed the main character in I Am Number Four, released in February 2011.
The film co-starred Timothy Olyphant, Dianna Agron and Teresa Palmer, and was directed
by D.J.
Caruso, produced by Michael Bay, and executive produced by Steven Spielberg.
He was offered the part of Jace Wayland in the upcoming portrayal of Cassandra Clare's
best selling book, City of Bones.
Jamie Campbell Bower was later cast as Jace Wayland.
Pettyfer had also been offered a part in an upcoming film adaption of Joseph Delaney's
The Wardstone Chronicles, and has declined the role.
He was in line to star in The Paperboy, based on the Pete Dexter novel of the same name,
but turned down the role.
In 2012 he played Adam, a 19-year-old who enters the world of male stripping in Magic
Mike.
Pettyfer had a small role in The Butler.
In 2014, He starred in the romantic drama Endless Love alongside actress Gabriella Wilde,
where they play love interests.
He has been cast in Diamond Dogs, although nothing is yet known about the movie, which
is based on a book by Alan Watt.
He is set to star in Nick Cassavetes' upcoming thriller Cali opposite Amber Heard who is
in talks to replace Kristen Stewart who abruptly dropped out of the film.
Pettyfer reportedly will reprise his role from Magic Mike in a sequel.
Personal life In June 2009, Pettyfer was voted number 35
on British women's magazine Company's list of the top 50 most eligible bachelors.
In August 2009, the British magazine Glamour ranked him number 21 on their list of the
sexiest men on the planet.
After Pettyfer completed filming Stormbreaker, he did not discuss the film with anyone at
his school, citing the advice of his Stormbreaker co-star Ewan McGregor, who told him to keep
his personal and professional lives separate.
Pettyfer has since decided to leave school and concentrate on his film career, while
studying drama at college, saying that "When you have already experienced going out and
working in the real world, and you come back to school, you just see it as a playground
and you don't want to be there any more".
Pettyfer has seven tattoos, including a Celtic cross on his chest, Tibetan script on the
inside of his right arm, the words "What Goes Around Comes Around" on his right shoulder,
a Katakana script on his lower waist, and the letters "ER," the initials of ex-girlfriend
Emma Roberts inside interlinking hearts on his right wrist.
When Contactmusic asked him about the "ER" tattoo he said "I don't know how to say it,
she's a lovely, lovely girl, we had a spell of something that is over now, but we're on
good terms.
She's beautiful, she's great; we're really good friends."
The actor had Roberts' name tattooed on his wrist while the two were dating.
"I'm going to get asked about this, aren't I?
I thought it was just between me and her," he said when asked about the tattoo.
Pettyfer dated actress Emma Roberts, whom he met on set of Wild Child in 2007.
He then started dating Dianna Agron from August 2010 to February 2011.
He was reportedly engaged to the actress Riley Keough in 2012, Elvis Presley's granddaughter,
whom he met on the set of their movie, Magic Mike.
Pettyfer is now dating Dutch model Marloes Horst.
Filmography Modelling
2008: Burberry – Spring/Summer 2008: Burberry – The Beat For Men eau de
cologne 2009: Burberry – Spring/Summer
Awards and nominations References
External links Alex Pettyfer at the Internet Movie Database