About: Asa Butterfield - Happy 15th Birthday!

Name: Asa Butterfield (IMDB / Twitter)
Role: Ender Wiggin
Birthday: April 1, 1997

Asa Butterfield was born and raised in Islington, London where, when he's not away filming, he lives with his parents and younger sister, Loxie. He also has an older brother, Morgan, who is a drummer.

Butterfield caught the acting bug when he was 7 and started taking part in a local children's theater. He made his first television appearance in the movie After Thomas (2006) where he played a young autistic boy and a year later he was casted in Son of Rambow (2007), a coming-of-age story about two boys who set out to create an amateur film.

According to Wikipedia, he enjoys school, friends, piano, squash, reading, video games, and his cats.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas 

Butterfield stepped into the limelight in 2008 when he appeared as "Bruno" in Mark Herman's World War II drama, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. After seeing his audition tape and meeting with him in person, Herman was so impressed with his natural, believable performance that he was instantly ready to cast him but decided to audition hundreds of other hopefuls before giving the role to Butterfield so that "no stone was left unturned."

as Bruno

When asked how much he knew about the Holocaust, Butterfield, like most kids his age, only had a vague idea. In order to allow the boy to keep the wide-eyed innocence he needed to bring across on screen as Bruno, the director chose not to tell him any more than he already knew. They also, contrary to common practice, opted to film the final scenes last in order to give Butterfield and the young boy playing Schmul, Jack Scanlon, time to prepare for the tragic ending of the film.

Merlin and More Movies

After appearing in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Butterfield secured a role in an episode of the BBC drama Merlin, where he played Mordred, a young Druid boy who is rumored to grow up to be the downfall of King Arthur. He appeared as Mordred in subsequent episodes in 2009 but Mordred was recently re-casted by an older actor, Alexander Vlahos, most likely because of conflicts with Butterfield's filming schedule.

as Mordred

Also in 2009, Butterfield was casted in and filmed the movie The Wolfman (2010), playing a younger version of Simon Merrells' character, Ben. Afterward he went on to appear alongside Emma Thompson and Dame Maggie Smith in Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang (2010), a role for which he was positively reviewed.

Most recently, Asa Butterfield can be seen as the title character in Martin Scorsese's Hugo, starring alongside many notable actors such as Sir Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Christopher Lee and Jude Law. The film opened to extremely positive reviews and was nominated for 11 Oscars, the most of the evening. It won 5 of those awards, including Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction.

as Hugo

Ender's Game

In November of 2011, after much speculation surrounding his name and the role, Asa Butterfield was officially cast as Ender Wiggin in the upcoming Ender's Game movie. Filming began in New Orleans on February 24, 2012 and is set to finish on June 8th.

Fun Fact

At the age of 5, Asa Butterfield appeared on the cover of "Better than Working" by Patrick Skene Catling, an autobiography of a British man who started his career in the airforce and then went on to become a war journalist. You can view the cover here. :)

Happy Birthday, Asa!