A dry type electro-active biopolymer actuator was newly developed with electrospun cellulose polyaniline bio-composite membranes. Through electrospinning with the mixture of cellulose acetate and polyaniline solutions, well-defined cellulose acetate nanofibers reinforced with chopped polyaniline nanoparticles were obtained and extracellular nano-porous bio-composite membranes with a good biocompatibility were fabricated. The electro-active bio-composite actuator based on cellulose acetate nanofibers with specially chopped polyaniline nanoparticles through electrospinning shows much larger electromechanical deformations than a pure cellulose acetate actuator. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.