Terry Notary

Biography:

Terry Notary (born August 14, 1968) is an American actor, stunt coordinator, and movement coach, best known for portraying creatures and animals through motion capture in film and television. His work includes major projects such as Avatar, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, the Planet of the Apes reboot series, The Hobbit trilogy, and Kong: Skull Island. He also played Cull Obsidian in Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019).

Notary was born in San Rafael, California. Diagnosed with severe hyperactivity at age seven, he was enrolled in gymnastics to channel his energy. He later earned a gymnastics scholarship to the University of California, where he studied theatre.

He began his career performing with Cirque du Soleil before moving into Hollywood as a stunt movement coach. His first job in film was on Ron Howard’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas, where he taught actors physical movement after impressing the director during auditions. He later worked on Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes, training by studying primates at the Los Angeles Zoo. Notary’s first motion capture role came with Avatar, where he served as the movement coach for the Na’vi characters.

In 2017, Swedish director Ruben Östlund cast him in The Square, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Notary played Oleg, a performance artist who imitates an aggressive ape at a high-society dinner. The unsettling sequence was critically acclaimed, with The Independent calling it “the most tense, uncomfortable scene of the year.”