Scott Adkins Action Star
Scott Adkins was born in Sutton Coldfield, England, on June 17, 1976. His family were generations were Butchers. Along with his elder brother Craig, he was raised by John and Janet Adkins, a loving middle-class family. It is worth mentioning that Scott’s great, great grandmother was of Spanish descent. Scott attended Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School in Sutton Coldfield, but he was not the best of stbest of students. Scott was enamored with films and would sneak downstairs after his parents were asleep spend the night watching films and then fall asleep during school. Scott, a natural athlete, enjoyed a variety of sports growing up, but when he was 10 years old, he accompanied his father and brother to the local Judo club. The attraction was instantaneous. Idolizing stars such as Bruce Lee and Jean-Claude Van Damme, Scott began training daily. He took over his Dad’s garage and turned it into his own Dojo. He even created a shrine to Bruce Lee and would bow to the shrine before and after training. When he was 13, Scott was mugged on a bus and the event kicked his training into overdrive. No incident like that would ever happen to him again. At the age of 14, Scott went on to train in Tae Kwon Do under the instruction of Ron Sergiew with the T.A.G.B. After a few years, he moved on to Kickboxing under Anthony Jones. Scott is currently a fully trained Kickboxing Instructor for the P.K.A.
Scott is a self confessed “film junkie” and his attention was drawn to acting through the Hollywood Greats. He enrolled in a drama class at Sutton Coldfield College. At first his shyness made it difficult for him to perform on stage in front of an audience but he overcame the fear and at the age of 21 he was offered a position at the prestigious Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. As it would be for any impoverished student, Scott found it hard to make ends meet without a grant and he was forced to leave without completing the course. Completely ejected, he thought his film career was over, but it was just beginning.
His first break came when he was offered a role in a Hong Kong martial arts film called Dei seung chui keung (2001) (aka Extreme Challenge). Spotted by Head of The Hong Kong Stuntmen Association and director Wei Tung and English-born Hong Kong movie expert Bey Logan, Adkins found himself in the East for the first time. Scott had the opportunity to work with some of Hong Kong cinema’s leading action directors including Woo-ping Yuen, Corey Yuen, Sammo Hung Kam-Bo and the legendary Jackie Chan. He began to be offered more and more roles and he was offered a guest role in BBC’s “Doctors” (2000) filmed at Birmingham’s Pebble Mill. A few episodes in BBC’s “EastEnders” (1985) and “City Central” (1998), and a lead role in Sky One comedy drama “Mile High” (2003) followed by a regular role in BBC’s “Holby City” (1999) as Bradley Hume, the assistant General Manager of Holby General.
Starring roles in feature films soon followed with his portrayal of Talbot in Special Forces (2003) (V) and Yuri Boyka” in Undisputed II: Last Man Standing (2006). It was Undisputed II: Last Man Standing that broke him into mainstream acting with his villainous portrayal of a Russian MMA underground fighter Boyka in what has been hailed as one of the best American made Martial Arts films of recent times. Along with lead actor Michael Jai White, fight coordinator J.J. Perry and the slick direction of Isaac Florentine this movie has some unbelievably heart stopping fight scenes. Soon after, Scott received guest starring roles in bigger budget films like The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) and The Tournament (2009), and played Jean-Claude Van Damme’s main adversary in Sony Pictures The Shepherd: Border Patrol (2008) (V). He is currently starring in films directed by Isaac Florentine.
