Iko Uwais

Quick Facts

Date of Birth2/12/1983

Country of OriginIndonesia

OccupationActor, Fight choreographer

Also known asUwais Qorny

Biography

Iko Uwais is an Indonesian actor and action choreographer. He was born on 12 February 1983 in Jakarta as Uwais Qorny; he was named after the 7th-century Islamic figure Uwais al-Qarani.

From childhood he trained in pencak silat at the Tiga Berantai school, which was founded and led by his grandfather, the silat master H. Achmad Bunawar. For his first film role in Merantau he additionally learned the style silat harimau (tiger silat) under master Edwel Datuk Rajo Gampo Alam.

Director Gareth Evans discovered him in 2007 while filming a documentary about silat, right in his training hall. He made his debut in the film Merantau (2009). In the films The Raid (2011) and The Raid 2 (2014) he played the lead role and, together with Yayan Ruhian, choreographed the fight scenes himself. For Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), in which he appeared, he choreographed, at the request of director J. J. Abrams, a lightsaber duel, which was however cut from the film for being too violent.

He was also action choreographer on the films Beyond Skyline (2017) and Stuber (2019); he contributed to the fight choreography on Mile 22 (2018), and on The Night Comes for Us (2018), in which he played Arian, he served as action coordinator. In the series Wu Assassins (Netflix, 2019) he played Kai Jin and was both lead fight choreographer and executive producer. In 2016 he received the Indonesian Celebrity of World Achievement award at the Infotainment Awards and the title Actor of the Year at the JawaPos Group Awards.

Associated Martial Arts

Filmography

A screen role does not mean the person actually practises the art — that is listed above.