Tom Hiddleston

He shares the same name as his great-great uncle, Tom Hiddleston, a shipyard plater from Greenock and a member of Royal Artillery's 51st (Highland) Division, who died after the Battle of the Somme and whose name is engraved in the Broomhill war memorial.

Hiddleston was raised in Wimbledon in his early years, and later moved to a village near Oxford.

He began boarding at Windlesham House School at age seven, moving to the Dragon School in Oxford a year later.

His parents divorced when he was twelve.

Regarding his parents' divorce, he said, "I like to think it made me more compassionate in my understanding of human frailty."

At age thirteen, Hiddleston started at Eton College, again as a boarder.

He continued on to Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge, where he earned a double first in Classics.

During his second term at Cambridge, he was seen in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire by talent agent Lorraine Hamilton of Hamilton Hodell.

Thomas William Hiddleston (born 9 February 1981) is an English actor.

Thomas William Hiddleston was born on 9 February 1981 in the Westminster district of London, to Diana Patricia (née Servaes) Hiddleston, an arts administrator and former stage manager, and Dr. James Norman Hiddleston, a physical chemist and former managing director of a biotechnology company that liaised with Oxford University.

His father is from Greenock in Renfrewshire in the west of Scotland, and his mother is from Suffolk.

His younger sister, Emma, is also an actress, whilst his older sister, Sarah, is a journalist in India.

Through his mother, he is a great-grandson of Vice Admiral Reginald Servaes and a great-great-grandson of food producer Sir Edmund Vestey.

His paternal grandfather, Alexander, served in the Royal Artillery and worked as a plater in the shipyards.

Hiddleston made his stage debut in Journey's End in 1999.

While still doing student plays, Hiddleston began appearing on television, landing parts in Stephen Whittaker's adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby (2001) for ITV, the BBC/HBO co-production Conspiracy (2001), and as Randolph Churchill, the son of Winston Churchill, in the BBC/HBO drama The Gathering Storm (2002).

He proceeded to study acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, from which he graduated in 2005.

Upon graduating from RADA, Hiddleston was cast in his first film role, playing Oakley in Joanna Hogg's first feature film, Unrelated (2006).

His sister Emma also appeared in the film as Badge.

Casting director, Lucy Bevan, who cast him in the film said "there was just a fantastic confidence about him".

Hiddleston had leading roles in Declan Donnellan's company Cheek by Jowl's productions The Changeling (2006), and Cymbeline (2007).

For the latter he won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Newcomer in a Play.

Hiddleston was the voiceover for BBC's documentary on the Galapagos Island in 2006.

He started his film career in the Joanna Hogg films Unrelated (2007) and Archipelago (2010).

He continued acting in theatre including the West End productions of Cymbeline (2007) and Ivanov (2008).

He also narrated the audiobook The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner in 2007, Hiddleston played the leading role of Edward in Hogg's second feature, Archipelago (2010).

In 2007, he joined a list of British actors, including Kate Winslet and Orlando Bloom, to have guest starred in the long-running medical drama Casualty.

He won the Olivier Award for Best Newcomer in a Play for his role in Cymbeline and was also nominated for the same award for his role as Cassio in Othello (2008).

His Donmar Warehouse credits include Cassio in Michael Grandage's production of Shakespeare's Othello (2008) alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor and Ewan McGregor, and Lvov in the West End revival of Chekhov's Ivanov (2008) with Kenneth Branagh.

His TV credits include Magnus Martinsson in the BBC detective drama Wallander (2008), Bill Hazledine in Suburban Shootout (2006), John Plumptre in the BBC costume drama TV film Miss Austen Regrets (2008) and William Buxton in the BBC drama series Return to Cranford (2009).

He gained international fame portraying Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), starting with Thor in 2011 and most recently headlining the Disney+ series Loki since 2021.

In 2011, Hiddleston portrayed F. Scott Fitzgerald in Woody Allen's romantic comedy Midnight in Paris, and appeared in Steven Spielberg's War Horse. That year, he won the Empire Award for Best Male Newcomer and was nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star Award.

Hiddleston is well-known for his portrayal of Loki in the 2011 Marvel Studios film Thor.

He continued working with auteurs in independent films including Terence Davies' The Deep Blue Sea (2012), Jim Jarmusch's romantic vampire film Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) and Guillermo del Toro's Crimson Peak (2015).

He also starred in Ben Wheatley's action film High Rise, and played the troubled country music singer Hank Williams in the biopic I Saw The Light.

Hiddleston's also known for his performances in television including his part in the 2012 BBC series The Hollow Crown's Henry IV and Henry V.

Hiddleston starred as the title character in a production of Coriolanus (2013–14), winning the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor and receiving a nomination for the Olivier Award for Best Actor.

Hiddleston starred in and executive-produced the AMC / BBC limited series The Night Manager (2016), for which he received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations, and won his first Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film.

The film Kong: Skull Island (2017) marked his first big-budget leading role outside the MCU.

He made his Broadway debut in a 2019 revival of Harold Pinter's classic drama Betrayal, for which he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play.