While wondering around London’s South Bank one day, Andy stumbled upon a workshop being run by the BBC Blast! team at the BFI. A few hours later he was recording continuity links for BBC3. The producers were impressed and recommended he give presenting a shot. Not knowing quite how to go about this, he figured getting his foot in the door of a production company might be a good place to start.
Soon he was working at Big Talk Productions (makers of Spaced, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz). During his time there he worked on a number of productions, Free Agents, Scott Pilgrim Vs The World and Paul to name a few. Andy gained extensive experience in production, script development, and research, (oh, and cleaning up Simon Pegg’s dog’s sick). He got to work with some of the industries most acclaimed talent including Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish and Bill Hader.
While at Big Talk he began devising side projects, such as hosting behind the scene segments, interviewing actors and directors (including Nick Frost and Robert Popper), and basically filming things that he found funny. One involved Andy attempting to make Londoner’s more friendly. This ended rather unsuccessfully when he was chased out of a locker room shower while trying to make friends.
Andy soon started getting work in front of the camera. He filmed a pre-recorded interactive game show (recording around 200 links that are generated depending on the players answer) and fronted a live gaming channel on Sky TV. This involved being on air for up to two and half hours at a time and was completely unscripted. Having experienced the fast-paced world of live broadcasting, Andy knew this was where his passion lay. He decided it was time to leave the day job at Big Talk.
Since leaving Big Talk Andy has attended a presenting course at The London Academy of Media, Film and Television where he sharpened his skills in front of the camera. He has begun hosting and writing an online film trailer review show, Trailer Trash. Andy also shot a sit-com pilot, Half Time, alongside Inbetweeners star Blake Harrison.
Andy attended Kent University where he gained a degree in Film and Philosophy. While there he hosted a popular show on the student radio station and trained six days a week for athletics. Since the age of 13 Andy has been a keen athlete, competing at a national level and representing Leicestershire and The Midlands. He specialised in the 100m with a personal best of 10.8 seconds. After graduation Andy decided to temporarily hang up his spikes in order to travel the world. Thailand, Australia and South America were explored in the year that followed. Andy eventually settled in Colombia for a while before realising, unfortunately, that his ambitions couldn’t be fulfilled sitting on a Caribbean beach.
In his spare time Andy loves indulging his passion for film and sport. He tries to travel as much as possible and thrives on meeting new people. He has coached international athletes in Strength and Conditioning and still has a small sprint squad that he trains in South London.
