Alexander Richard "Alex" Pettyfer (born 10 April 1990) is an English actor and model.  He appeared in school plays and on television before being cast as Alex Rider, the main character in the 2006 film version of Stormbreaker.  Pettyfer was nominated for a Young Artist Award and an Empire Award for his role.  He has been seen as a model in several advertising campaigns for Burberry.  His next starring role is in Beastly, a modernized retelling of Beauty and the Beast.

Pettyfer was born in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, the son of Lee Ireland (nee Robinson), a former model, and Richard Pettyfer, an actor.  He has a younger half-brother, James Ireland, a junior tennis player, from his mother's re-marriage to Michael Ireland, a property developer.

Pettyfer was raised in Windsor, and began his career as a child fashion model at the age of seven, for the Gap, after meeting Ralph Lauren in a toy store in New York City.  He also did advertisements for some yogurt brands.  His first commercial was at age six.

As a schoolboy, he performed in plays, including in the role of Willy Wonka in a production Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  Pettyfer was educated at two junior independent schools: The Mall School, a small school in Twickenham, followed by the Lambrook Haileybury school in Berkshire.  He subsequently attended two other independent boarding schools: Millfield School in Street in Somerset and Shiplake College near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire.  After GCSEs, he left Shiplake College to attend the independent Sylvia Young Theatre School.

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