Early Life
Serkis, one of five children, was born and brought up in Ruislip Manor in West London. His mother, Lylie (née Weech), was English and taught disabled children; his father, Clement Serkis, was an Iraqi gynaecologist of Armenian ethnicity. His ancestors' original surname had been "Sarkisian".
Serkis was educated at St Benedict's School, Ealing, and then started studying visual arts at Lancaster University, choosing theatre as a second subject so he could design posters. Serkis was a member of The County College, and part of the student radio station Bailrigg FM.
As part of the first year of his visual arts course at Lancaster University, Serkis had to choose a secondary subject as part of a broad-range based arts foundation. He chose to study theatre and joined the Nuffield Studio, getting involved designing and producing plays. Having agreed to act in a couple of productions, towards the end of his first year he played the lead role in Barrie Keeffe's play Gotcha, as a rebellious teenager holding a teacher hostage. As a result he changed his major subject in the subsequent two years to acting, constructing his modular Independent Studies Degree around acting, set design studying Stanislavski and Brecht, and minor modules in art and visual graphics.
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