Andrew Shim

Shim was born in Miami, Florida, United States to his African-American mother and Chinese father. He is of African-American and Chinese descent. When Shim was 6 years old, his family moved from United States to England in 1989.He started at Nottingham's Central Junior Television Workshop when he was 14.His sister, Shauna Shim, was already attending and, although not initially keen, before Shim joined with his grandmother.Shim was on the verge of leaving when he auditioned for a local film project to be directed by Shane Meadows. Repeated callbacks resulted in him being cast as the title character in A Room for Romeo Brass.

Since starring as Romeo in A Room for Romeo Brass, Shim has appeared in subsequent Meadows' features Once Upon a Time in the Midlands (2002), Dead Man's Shoes (2004) and This Is England (2006) as well as the spin-off TV series This Is England '86 (2010), This Is England '88 (2011) and This Is England '90 (2015). He was also in the quarter-minute film "The Stairwell", which was Meadows' 2005 entry in the Nokia Shorts competition.

Additionally, Shim has appeared in several advertisements. He played a salesman in an Act On CO2 commercial, and also appeared in an Orange Mobile advert which was filmed in Cape Town, South Africa. He played the role of Jamie in British prison film Screwed (2011) and played the character of Sam in Airborne starring Mark Hamill.