Alan Tudyk was born Alan Wray Tudyk on March 16, 1971 in El Paso, Texas. He studied drama at Lon Morris Junior College from 1990-1991 where he received the Academic Excellence Award for Drama. In 1993, he pursued his drama studies at Juilliard, where he remained until 1996, when he left prior to earning his degree. Shortly after leaving Juilliard, Tudyk made his feature film debut in 35 Miles from Normal. He has since appeared in other movies like Patch Adams, 28 Days, A Knight’s Tale, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Knocked Up and I, Robot.
Hoban “Wash” Washburne, played by Alan Tudyk on Firefly, is the amazingly gifted, albeit insecure, pilot of Captain Malcolm Reynolds’ ship, Serenity. Without a doubt, Wash is skilled at his job, successfully flying the cargo ship over a speeding train, dodging missiles and navigating through a canyon away from falling boulders. Despite his efficiency, Wash is both insecure and immature and is insanely jealous of the bond between his wife and captain.
(Photo courtesy of FOX)
Alan's most prized possession was a 1964 Mustang, which he named "Old Sock."
Threw a "We Don't Work for FOX Anymore" party for the cast and crew of the short lived TV series "Firefly" upon hearing of its being cancelled.
Didn't go to his senior prom because the girl he was planning to take two-timed him with another guy and got pregnant.
According to the rest of the Firefly cast, was consistently 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 the film, I, Robot, studied dance, movement and mime to accurately portray movement that has been programmed in. His work was captured with green screen technology.
To prepare for the role of Steve The Pirate in Dodgeball, joined a group of pirate role players called The Rumrunners and spent a week at Pirate Camp.
According to the "War Stories" (1x09) episode commentary, when he couldn't remember the Chinese dialogue for Firefly, he would just make it up and hope no one noticed.
In the Firefly episode "Out of Gas" (1x05) 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 canceled, he took that button as a keepsake. When Joss Whedon announced that he would be searching for a way to bring the show back, as either a series or a feature film, Alan sent him the button with a note that said, again, "When your miracle gets here, just hit this button.".
While in college, Alan was active in the Delta Psi Omega fraternity.
Alan filled in for Hank Azaria in the Broadway show Spamalot while Azaria was filming the second season of Huff and working on the seventeenth season of The Simpsons. Actress Sara Ramirez, another performer in the production at this time, was in Alan's class (Group 26) at Juilliard.
Smokey and the Bandit is his favorite movie.
As a nod to his character in Firefly and Serenity, Alan can be heard in Halo 3 swearing in Chinese, quickly followed by, "I wish I was someone else right now!".
1. Untitled V Remake (2010) (TV) (filming) .... Dale Maddox
2. Untitled David Kohan/Max Mutchinick Project (2009) (TV) (post-production) .... Drew
3. "Dollhouse" .... Alpha / ... (2 episodes, 2009)
4. Bed Ridden (2009) .... Detective Kurtz
5. Meet Market (2008) .... Danny
6. Untitled Barry Sonnenfeld TV Pilot (2008) (TV) .... Charlie
7. Halo 3 (2007) (VG) (voice) .... Marines
8. 3:10 to Yuma (2007) .... Doc Potter
9. Knocked Up (2007) .... Jack
10. Death at a Funeral (2007) .... Simon
11. "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" .... Carl Fisher (1 episode, 2006)
12. Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (2006) (VG) (voice) .... Cholly
13. Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006) (voice) .... Cholly
14. Capitol Law (2006) (TV) .... Walker Eliot
15. Serenity (2005) .... Wash
16. "Into the West" (2005) TV mini-series .... Nathan Wheeler (unknown episodes)
17. Rx (2005) .... Pepe
18. "Arrested Development" .... Pastor Veal (1 episode, 2005)
19. I, Robot (2004) .... Sonny
... aka I, Robot (Germany)
20. Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004) .... Steve the Pirate
21. "Firefly" .... Hoban 'Wash' Washburne (14 episodes, 2002-2003)
21. Ice Age (2002) (voice) .... Oscar / Dab the Dodo
22. Hearts in Atlantis (2001) .... Monte Man
23. A Knight's Tale (2001) .... Wat Falhurst
24. "Frasier" .... Todd Peterson (1 episode, 2000)
25. "Strangers with Candy" .... Father (2 episodes, 2000)
26. Wonder Boys (2000) .... Sam Traxler
27. 28 Days (2000) .... Gerhardt
28. Patch Adams (1998) .... Everton
29. 35 Miles from Normal (1997) .... Trevor
I was a real ham as a child. I'd insist on dressing up as a cowboy whenever the family went out for dinner. In high school, I was a menace. I'd fake nose bleeds and fainting spells to panic my teachers.
There aren't too many new actors like Alan Arkin or Gene Hackman who exist on their own frequency, do things in a way that nobody else could get away with. Those are the people who are inspirational to me.
In high school I wanted to be a hotel manager. If you're an actor, you don't have any money and I wanted to have a wife and children. Now I'm an actor with money but I still don't have a wife and children!