Asa Bopp Farr Butterfield ( AY-sə; born 1 April 1997) is an English actor. Beginning his career as a child actor, he first achieved recognition as the lead of the historical drama film The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008). He continued to headline films during the 2010s, starring in the adventure drama Hugo (2011), the science-fiction film Ender's Game (2013), the drama X+Y (2014), the fantasy Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016) and the romantic science-fiction The Space Between Us (2017). From 2019 to 2023, Butterfield portrayed the lead of the Netflix comedy-drama series Sex Education.
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Background
Asa Bopp Farr Butterfield was born on 1 April 1997 in Islington, London, and is the son of Jacqueline "Jake" Farr, a psychologist, and Sam Butterfield, an advertising copywriter. He is named after the comet Hale-Bopp. He was educated at Stoke Newington School in Stoke Newington, London.
Career
Butterfield started acting at age seven at the Young Actors Theatre Islington in Islington. Later, he secured minor roles in After Thomas, a 2006 television drama, and the 2007 film Son of Rambow.
In 2008, he had a guest role playing Donny in the television series Ashes to Ashes. Also in 2008, at 10, Butterfield played the lead role in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Director Mark Herman said that they came across Butterfield early on in the audition process. He was on the first audition tape Herman received and he was the third hopeful he met in person. Herman thought Butterfield's performance was outstanding, but only decided to cast him after auditioning hundreds of other boys, "so no stone was left unturned". Herman and producer David Heyman were looking for someone who was able to portray the main character's innocence, so they asked each of the children what they knew about the Holocaust. Butterfield's knowledge was slim and it was purposely kept that way throughout filming so it would be easier for him to convey his character's innocence. The final scenes of the film were shot at the end of the production period to prepare both him and Jack Scanlon for the dramatic conclusion of the film.
