Damien Walters



Damien Gareth Walters (born April 6, 1982), from Derby, United Kingdom is a professional stuntman, gymnastics coach and free runner. Before retiring from his career as a gymnast in 2007, he represented Great Britain in several championships. At his peak he was ranked 4th in the world, winning the European and world championships with his team.

Career

He remembers his first attempt at a trick being a frontflip on grass when he was 4 or 5 years old, which he failed, leading to his mother enrolling him in gymnastics. He has had over 20 years training experience, and currently trains for approximately 3-4 hours each day.

With Damien's extensive tumbling and gymnastics skills, many free running moves come naturally to him. He was first noticed in the community after releasing his 2007 showreel, which featured many movements inspired by free running. This video got him scouted by Jackie Chan's stunt agent. Subsequently, he retired from gymnastics to pursue a career as a stuntman, where he is currently a part of a core group of stuntmen who work for Brad Allan, the first non-Asian member of Jackie Chan's stunt team. He was awarded with the 2010 Taurus World Stunt Award for Best Fight for his performance in the film Ninja Assassin.

He has featured in several videos with free runner Tim "Livewire" Shieff, including the popular Youtube series The Walters & Shieff Show. Damien's 2009 showreel became one of the most popular videos of all time on Youtube after spreading virally online. His YouTube channel is one of the most popular freerunning channels with over 100,000 subscribers and 36 million upload views, as of April 2011.

Film/TV appearances

 * Hellboy II: The Golden Army [2008] - Damien flew out to Budapest to work as a tumbling double for Luke Goss's character (Prince Nuada).
 * World Freerun Championships [2009] - Damien appeared as one of the four judges in the 2009 Barclayard World Freerun Championships which was broadcast live on BBC Three.
 * Ninja Assassin [2009] - Damien worked as a stuntman for the Wachowski brothers' film.
 * Kick-Ass [2010] - Damien worked as the assistant fight coordinator, and doubled for lead character Kick-Ass / Dave Lizewski, played by Aaron Johnson.
 * Scott Pilgrim vs. the World [2010] - Stunts
 * I Am Number Four [2011] - Stunts
 * The Eagle [2011] - Stunt performer
 * Blitz [2011, To be released] - Stunt double