Terry Notary (born August 14, 1968) is an American actor, stunt coordinator/double, and movement coach. Notary mainly portrays creatures and animals for the film and television industry and is known for his motion capture performances in films like Avatar, The Adventures of Tintin: Secrets of the Unicorn, the Planet of the Apes reboot series, The Hobbit trilogy, and Kong: Skull Island. In 2018, Notary played Cull Obsidian in the Marvel Studios films Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
Born in San Rafael, California, Notary was diagnosed as being severely hyperactive at age 7. His parents enrolled him in gymnastics class to burn off excess energy. He won a gymnastics scholarship at UCLA, where he graduated with a major in theatre.
Notary's first career was as a performer with Cirque du Soleil. His first job as a stunt movement coach was on Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Director Ron Howard was hiring Cirque gymnasts for the film, and after sufficiently impressing Howard, Notary was offered the job of teaching all the actors how to move.[4] Notary followed this new career path to Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes, for which he prepared by studying ape movements at the LA County Zoo. Notary's first motion capture film was Avatar, where he was the movement coach for the Na'vi.
Swedish director Ruben Östlund hired Notary when casting his Palme d'Or-winning 2017 film The Square. For Oleg, a character who acts like an ape, Östlund discovered Notary after running a Google search for "actor imitating monkey" and viewing one of Notary's performances (which was for an audition for Planet of the Apes). His performance in that single scene, in which a performance artist acts like a hostile ape at a fancy dinner, was widely praised, The Independent calling it "the most tense, uncomfortable scene of the year."
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2025
2024
as Rocket
2022
as Gordy
2020
as Rail Worker / Live Action Reference Performance of Buck
2019
as On-Set Groot / Cull Obsidian
2018
as Cull Obsidian / On-Set Groot
2018
as Oleg
2017
as Oleg
2017
as Rocket
2017
as Kong Mo-Cap Services
2016
as Grommash Hellscream
2014
as Laketown Refugee (uncredited)
2014
as Rocket
2013
as Goblin (uncredited)
2012
as Great Goblin / Yazneg (uncredited)
2012
as The Clown (uncredited)
2011
as Rocket / Bright Eyes
2011
as The Creature
2009
as Alpha Male
2008
as Alpha Creature