Mike Avery

Avery's screen presence goes back at least to 1990, when he appeared in *A Gnome Named Gnorm* — a film that's more cult curiosity than mainstream hit, but it's a real credit, and it puts him in the industry before many of his contemporaries had even started auditioning. From there, his career split into two tracks that he's maintained ever since: occasional on-camera acting roles and a much more substantial career as a stunt performer. The stunt work is where Avery's real résumé lives. Over 24 credited projects, he's contributed to films ranging from *Horrible Bosses* to *Little Hercules* to the prestige drama *True Blood*. He performed utility stunts on *The Prestige* — Christopher Nolan's 2006 period thriller about dueling magicians — and doubled for Jesse Eisenberg and Benjamin McKenzie at various points in his career. By the early 2020s, he was working on productions at the absolute top of the industry's food chain: *Black Panther: Wakanda Forever* and *Avatar: The Way of Water* both hit theaters in 2022, and Avery's name is in the credits of both (IMDb). His acting credits don't follow the same upward arc — they're sparse and often character-specific in a way that suggests he takes roles that interest him rather than chasing a traditional acting career. The "Bloated Man" in *Night Swim* (2024) is his most recent known on-screen appearance, and it's the kind of supporting horror role that's easy to overlook but hard to forget once you've seen it. *Madame Web* also lists him among its stunt credits. Whether Avery's profile grows beyond the stunt world is an open question, but his family background and the caliber of productions he's attached to suggest he's exactly where he wants to be (IMDb).