Peter Szymon Serafinowicz (ˌsɛrəˈfɪnəwɪtʃ ; born 10 July 1972) is an English actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. He is best known for his roles in numerous British and American comedy series, and film roles such as the voice of Darth Maul in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), Pete in Shaun of the Dead (2004), and The Sommelier in John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017). He also appeared as the title character in the live-action series of The Tick (2016), received attention in the late 2010s for political satire videos in which he dubbed over videos of Donald Trump with various comedic voices, and has directed music videos for acts such as Hot Chip.
Peter Szymon Serafinowicz was born into a Catholic family in the Gateacre area of Liverpool on 10 July 1972, the son of post office worker Catherine (née Geary) and scaffolder Szymon Serafinowicz. His father, a native of Surrey who later moved to Liverpool, was born to a Polish mother and Belarusian father. He has a brother named James, who became a film producer, and a sister named Helen, who became a writer and was married to Irish comedy writer Graham Linehan from 2004 to 2021 after Serafinowicz introduced them.
At the age of three, Serafinowicz moved with his family to the Belle Vale area of Liverpool, where he attended Our Lady of the Assumption Primary School. The family moved back to Gateacre when he was 14, and he attended St Francis Xavier's College in the neighbouring Woolton suburb. He later said, "I had a very happy childhood, but Belle Vale was very rough. I was only about three when we moved there, but I can still remember it looking very shiny, and it was all landscaped. But it was a very poor area, and it became scruffy quite quickly. [...] Gateacre is traditionally seen as one of the posh areas of Liverpool. It wasn't really that much posher!"
Serafinowicz made his broadcasting debut in 1993 on Radio 1 show The Knowledge, a spoof documentary about the music industry.