Deep Roy

Roy was born on 1 December 1957{{cite news|title=Famous Birthdays|work=Minneapolis Star Tribune|date=1 December 2017|page=A2|postscript=none}}; {{cite news|title=Today's Birthdays|work=The Baltimore Sun|date=1 December 2014|page=A9}} in Nairobi{{cite web |title=Roy {{!}} Star Trek |url=https://www.startrek.com/database_article/roy |website=StarTrek.com |publisher=CBS Television Distribution and CBS Interactive Inc. |access-date=30 April 2021}} to Indian parents in a Sikh family. He studied accounting in London before dropping out at 18. He later enrolled in The Slim Wood School of Comedy and got his start in the entertainment arena in England in 1970 as a stand-up comic in local cabaret clubs. In April 1970, Roy opened on the UK stage in Ray Cooney's Miracle Worker at the Palace Theatre, Westcliff-on-Sea. He made his professional screen acting debut in a 1976 episode of The New Avengers, titled "Target!" as a character named Klokoe. He made his film debut later that same year, in The Pink Panther Strikes Again, as the Italian Assassin. Another early role was as Mr. Sin, the "pig-brained Peking Homunculus", a villain with a distinct appetite for homicide, in the Doctor Who serial The Talons of Weng-Chiang. In 1979, Roy played a genetically engineered life form "Decima" in the first season of Blake's 7 episode "The Web", the diminutive chess genius, "The Klute", in the second season of Blake's 7 episode "Gambit" and he voiced the character "Moloch", in the third season of Blake's 7 episode "Moloch". He was a stand-in for the Jedi Master Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}} He is uncredited on the film but can be seen in many behind-the-scenes photos dressed as Yoda for perspective shots filmed towards the end of production.

He has played apes in two movies: Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, and again in the Tim Burton remake of Planet of the Apes (2001) in two roles, one as a young gorilla boy and as Thade's niece. He has worked for Burton in three other films, Big Fish (2003), Corpse Bride (2005), where he supplied General Bonesapart's voice, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (also 2005).{{cite news|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/2005/07/15/movies/15char.html|work=The New York Times|title=Film review: Looking for the Candy, Finding a Back Story|first=A. O.|last=Scott|author-link=A. O. Scott|date=15 July 2005|access-date=31 January 2021}} He played all 165 Oompa-Loompas in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.{{cite web |last1=Kung |first1=Michelle |title=The sole Oompa-Loompa |url=https://ew.com/article/2005/07/01/sole-oompa-loompa/ |website=people.com |access-date=30 April 2021}} In referencing his workload during production, director Tim Burton called Roy the "hardest-working man in show biz".{{cite web |last=Colbourne |first=Scott |date=15 July 2005 |title=How'd They Do It? The Oompa-Loompa Factor |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/howd-they-do-it-the-oompa-loompa-factor/article737633/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226102657/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/howd-they-do-it-the-oompa-loompa-factor/article737633/ |archive-date=26 February 2021 |access-date=21 November 2021 |website=The Globe and Mail}} Roy had extensive training for the role in dance, yoga, and some minor instrument playing.

He has performed many other roles in films and on television, including The X-Files, Flash Gordon, Return to Oz (as the Tin Woodman), Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal as a puppeteer extra, The NeverEnding Story as Teeny Weeny, the rider of the "racing snail", Alien from L.A., Howling VI: The Freaks as Mr Toones and Return of the Jedi as Droopy McCool.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}

He appeared in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) as an Egyptian border guard and in the film Star Trek (also 2009) as Keenser, Scotty's assistant on the ice planet Delta Vega; he reprised the Keenser role in the sequels Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond. In one of his more prominent speaking roles, Roy played Aaron, a violent Mumbai-born Mexican criminal in the second season of the HBO comedy Eastbound & Down. Roy starred as Sandeep Majumdar in the 2012 short film The Ballad of Sandeep.{{cite web|url=http://www.theballadofsandeep.com/about|work=The Ballad of Sandeep|title=About the film|access-date=31 January 2021}}{{Dead link|date=January 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

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Category:1957 births

Category:20th-century British male actors

Category:20th-century Kenyan male actors

Category:21st-century British male actors

Category:21st-century Kenyan male actors

Category:Actors with dwarfism

Category:British actors with disabilities

Category:British male actors

Category:British people of Indian descent

Category:British people of Indo-Kenyan descent

Category:British puppeteers

Category:British stunt performers

Category:Kenyan emigrants to the United Kingdom

Category:Kenyan male film actors

Category:Kenyan people of Indian descent

Category:Kenyan people with disabilities

Category:Kenyan stunt performers

Category:Living people

Category:Male actors from Nairobi

Category:Puppetry in Kenya