Iko Uwais

Uwais Qorny (pronounced [uˈwaɪh ˈkorni]),^[1] known professionally as Iko Uwais, (born 12 February 1983) is an Indonesian actor, stuntman, fight choreographer, and martial artist.^[2][3] He is best known for acting in the action films Merantau (2009), The Raid (2011), The Raid 2 (2014), Headshot (2016), Mile 22 (2018), The Night Comes for Us (2018), Stuber (2019), and the Netflix series Wu Assassins (2019–22).^[4][5]

Iko Uwais
Uwais at the New York premiere of The Raid 2 in March 2014
Born	Uwais Qorny (1983-02-12) 12 February 1983 (age 42) Jakarta, Indonesia
Nationality	Indonesia
Occupations	Actor stuntman fight choreographer martial artist
Years active	2007–present
Spouse	Audy Item ​ (m. 2012)​
Children	2
Signature

Early life

Iko Uwais was born Uwais Qorny in Jakarta, to Musthafa and Maisyaroh Kamaluddin.^[6][7] His grandfather, H. Achmad Bunawar, was a silat master and founded a silat school.^[8] He is named after the 7th-century Islamic figure Owais al-Qarani.^[9]

Career

In 2007, Uwais met director Gareth Evans, who was filming a documentary about silat, a form of martial arts, in Uwais's training hall. Uwais's natural charisma and great camera presence encouraged Evans to cast him as the leading role for his first martial art movie, Merantau.^[10][11] After signing a five-year contract with Gareth Evans and his production company, Uwais resigned from his daytime job as an operational driver at Esia, an Indonesian telecom company.^[12][13][14]

In his first acting experience in Merantau, Uwais played the role of a young Minang (West-Sumatran), which led him to learn the Minang style of silat harimau (tiger style) from Master Edwel Datuk Rajo Gampo Alam. Merantau was released in Indonesia on 6 August 2009. The film was featured in Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival in South Korea and Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas with highly positive reviews.^[15][16][17] Merantau won the Best Film award at ActionFest 2010.^[18][19]

Uwais's second collaboration with Gareth Evans was The Raid (known as The Raid: Redemption in the United States), which began filming in mid-March 2011 and was released in mid-2012.^[20] The movie has been hailed by critics and audiences in various festivals as one of the best martial art movies in years.^[21] The following year Uwais appeared in a small role in Keanu Reeves's directorial debut Man of Tai Chi.^[22]

In 2014, Uwais collaborated on a third movie with Evans, The Raid 2, a sequel to the original film. Uwais also appeared briefly in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), alongside his The Raid 2 co-stars Yayan Ruhian and Cecep Arif Rahman.^[5][23] He was also asked to choreograph a lightsaber fight in the film by director J. J. Abrams, but the sequence was rejected for being too violent.^[22]

In 2016, he appeared in the martial arts film Headshot, which received generally positive reviews.^[24]

In 2017, he filmed the international martial arts film Triple Threat, together with Tony Jaa, Michael Jai White, Tiger Chen, and Scott Adkins—the film was released in early 2019.^[25] In 2018, Uwais starred in the films, Mile 22 and The Night Comes for Us.^[26][27]

In the same year, it was announced that Uwais was cast in the lead role of Kai Jin on the Netflix series, Wu Assassins.^[28] The series premiered on 8 August 2019.^[29] Uwais reprised his role in the sequel film, Fistful of Vengeance.^[30] It was released on 17 February 2022 to mixed reviews.^[31]

In 2019, Uwais starred in the action comedy film Stuber alongside Kumail Nanjiani and Dave Bautista.^[32] In the same year, it was announced that Uwais would appear in a film called Chinatown Express playing a man who must fight through the gangland of New York to save his family after the disappearance of his son during a gang's killing spree.^[33] Uwais was also announced to star in The Bellhop, one of the first five films in development by Balboa Productions, the new production company co-founded by Sylvester Stallone in 2018.^[34]

Uwais played Hard Master in Snake Eyes, a spin-off from the G.I. Joe movie franchise.^[35][36] The film was released on 23 July 2021.^{[37][38][39][40]}

In October 2021, Uwais joined the cast of Expend4bles, which was released in 2023 to poor reviews.^[41] In May 2023, Iko Uwais was announced to star in a sci-fi thriller Ash directed by Flying Lotus alongside Aaron Paul, Eiza González, Beulah Koale, and Kate Elliott.^[42]

In January 2025, Uwais revealed that he had started a film production company, Uwais Pictures. The company's initial slate of films includes Uwais's directorial debut Timur, a dramatization of the Mapenduma hostage crisis that Uwais also stars in.^[43]

Personal life

On 25 June 2012, Uwais married singer Audy Item at the Hotel Gran Mahakam in Jakarta.^[44] The couple have two daughters, Atreya Syahla Putri Uwais^[45][46] and Aneska Layla Putri Uwais.^[47]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Director(s)	Notes	Ref.
2009	Merantau (Wander)	Yuda	Gareth Evans		[48]
2011	The Raid	Rama		Also action choreographer	[49]
2013	Man of Tai Chi	Gilang Sanjaya	Keanu Reeves	Hollywood debut film	[50]
2014	The Raid 2	Rama/Yuda	Gareth Evans	Also fight choreographer	[51]
2015	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	Razoo Qin-Fee	J. J. Abrams	Cameo	[52]
2016	Headshot	Ishmael/Abdi	The Mo Brothers		[4]
2017	Beyond Skyline	Sua	Liam O'Donnell	Also action choreographer	[53]
2018	Mile 22	Li Noor	Peter Berg	Also co-fight choreographer	[54]
	The Night Comes for Us	Arian	Timo Tjahjanto	Also action coordinator	[55]
2019	Triple Threat	Jaka	Jesse V. Johnson		[56]
	Stuber	Oka Tedjo	Michael Dowse	Also action choreographer	[57]
2021	Snake Eyes	Hard Master	Robert Schwentke
2022	Fistful of Vengeance	Kai Jin	Roel Reiné		[30]
2023	Expend4bles	Suarto Rahmat	Scott Waugh		[41]
2025	Ash	Adhi	Flying Lotus
	Skyline: Warpath	Sua	Liam O'Donnell	Post-production	[58]
TBA	The Bellhop				[59]
	Chinatown Express				[60][61]
	The Blind of the Phantom Cave	Barda Mandrawata	Timo Tjahjanto
	Timur		Iko Uwais	Directorial debut	[43]

Television series

Year	Title	Role	Network	Notes	Ref.
2019	Wu Assassins	Kai Jin	Netflix	Main role; also as producer and lead fight choreographer	[62]

Awards and nominations

Year	Organisation	Award	Work	Result	Ref.
2010	Indonesian Movie Awards	Best Newcomer Actor	Merantau	Nominated	[63]
		Favorite Newcomer Actor		Nominated	[63]
2013	Indonesian Movie Awards	Best Chemistry (shared with Donny Alamsyah)	The Raid	Nominated	[64]
2014	Indonesian Choice Awards	Actor of the Year	Himself	Nominated	[65]
	Indonesian Yahoo! Celebrity Awards	Most Wanted Male		Nominated	[66]
	Republika Awards	The Best Republika's Change Figure		Won	[67]
2016	Infotainment Awards	Indonesian Celebrity of World Achievement		Won	[68]
	JawaPos Group Awards	Actor of the Year		Won	[67]

See also

• Cinema of Indonesia
• Martial arts film