Scott Adkins (English Actor) ~ Bio with [ Photos | Videos ]

Scott Edward Adkins (born 17 June 1976) is an English actor and martial artist who is best known for playing Russian prison fighter Yuri Boyka in the 2006 film Undisputed II: Last Man Standing and its following two sequels: Undisputed III: Redemption (2010) and Boyka: Undisputed (2016). He is also known for playing Casey Bowman in Ninja and its sequel Ninja: Shadow of a Tear, Bradley Hume in Holby City, Lucian in Doctor Strange, Kiley in The Bourne Ultimatum and John in Zero Dark Thirty. Adkins has also appeared in EastEnders, Hollyoaks, Doctors as well as starred in many direct-to-video films.

Early life

Scott Adkins was born in Sutton Coldfield, England, on 17 June 1976. He became interested in martial arts at the age of ten when he, his father, and older brother, Craig, visited the local Judo club. After he was mugged at 13 years old, his interest towards martial arts grew even more at age 14 . That same year, he started practicing Taekwondo. Since age 16, Adkins has also trained in Kickboxing under Anthony Jones. He is now a fully trained Kickboxing Instructor for the P.K.A. He has also trained in other martial arts including Ninjutsu, Karate, Capoeira, Jujutsu, Judo, Jeet Kune Do, Krav Maga, Wushu and Gymnastics.

Career

His first break came when he was offered a role in a Hong Kong martial arts film called Dei Seung Chui Keung (2001) (aka Extreme Challenge`). Spotted by Head of The Hong Kong Stuntmen Association and director Wei Tung and English-born Hong Kong movie expert Bey Logan, Adkins found himself in the East for the first time. Scott got the chance to work with some of Hong Kong cinema’s leading action directors including Woo-ping Yuen, Corey Yuen, Sammo Hung Kam-Bo and the legendary Jackie Chan. Acting roles started to come in and he was offered a guest role in BBC’s Doctors (2000) filmed at Birmingham’s Pebble Mill. A few episodes in BBC’s EastEnders (1985) and City Central (1998), and a lead role in Sky One comedy drama Mile High (2003) followed by a regular role in BBC’s Holby City (1999) as Bradley Hume, the assistant general manager of Holby General.

Starring roles in feature films soon followed with his portrayal of Talbot in Special Forces (2003) and Yuri Boyka in Undisputed II: Last Man Standing (2006). It was this film that broke him into the mainstream with his villainous portrayal of a Russian MMA underground fighter Boyka. After this Scott had guest starring roles in bigger budget films like The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) and The Tournament (2009), and played Jean-Claude Van Damme’s main adversary in Sony Pictures The Shepherd: Border Patrol (2008). Adkins appears in the role of King Amphitryon in The Legend of Hercules.

In 2012, he was cast to star in Métal Hurlant Chronicles, a sci-fi Franco-Belgium TV show, adapted from the French comic books Metal Hurlant. He will star in 2 episodes; “King’s crown” with Michael Jai White, “Second chance” in the episode “Loyal Khondor” with Karl E. Landler and John Rhys Davies, his character from “Second chance” is doing a cameo, encountering Khondor, played by Karl E. Landler, in front of an intergalactic pub. Guillaume Lubrano creator and director of the show decided to cross the universe of two originals stories.