Tom Holland Biography

Tom Holland

Thomas Stanley Holland (born 1 June 1996) is an English actor. His accolades include a British Academy Film Award, three Saturn Awards, a Guinness World Record, and an appearance on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list. Some publications have called him one of the most popular actors of his generation.

Holland's career began at age nine when he enrolled in a dancing class, where a choreographer noticed him and arranged for him to audition for a role in Billy Elliot the Musical at London's Victoria Palace Theatre. After two years of training, he secured a supporting part in 2008 and was upgraded to the title role that year, which he played until 2010. Holland made his film debut in the disaster drama The Impossible (2012) as a teenage tourist trapped in a tsunami, for which he received a London Film Critics Circle Award for Young British Performer of the Year. After this, Holland decided to pursue acting as a full-time career, appearing in How I Live Now (2013) and playing historical figures in the film In the Heart of the Sea (2015) and the miniseries Wolf Hall (2015).

Holland achieved international recognition playing Spider-Man/Peter Parker in six Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) superhero films, beginning with Captain America: Civil War (2016). The following year, Holland received the BAFTA Rising Star Award and later became the youngest actor to play a title role in an MCU film in Spider-Man: Homecoming. The sequels Far From Home (2019) and No Way Home (2021) each grossed more than $1 billion worldwide, and the latter became the highest-grossing film of the year. During this period, Holland gained recognition for playing darker roles in the crime dramas The Devil All the Time (2020) and Cherry (2021). Holland has additionally directed the short film Tweet (2015) and voiced roles in computer-animated features, including Onward (2020).

Early life

Thomas Stanley Holland was born on 1 June 1996 in Kingston upon Thames in southwest London, to photographer Nicola (née Frost) and Dominic Holland, a comedian, and author. He has three younger brothers. His paternal grandmother was from Tipperary, Ireland. Holland lives in Kingston upon Thames, near the house of his parents and younger brothers. As his parents have creative professions, he is often inspired by them; he considers his father a role model who has unofficially worked as his manager due to his experience in the industry.

Holland was educated at Donhead, an all-male Catholic preparatory school in Wimbledon in southwest London. When he was seven, he was diagnosed with dyslexia. His parents sent him and his brothers (to avoid making them feel neglected) to a private school so he could get the necessary attention. Although Holland liked the new school, this started to drain his family's finances. Holland attended Wimbledon College, a voluntary aided Jesuit comprehensive school, followed by the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in Croydon.

Growing up, Holland considered several career choices. As a child, he was a fan of Janet Jackson's songs, and would often dance to them. His mother, impressed with this, signed him up for a dancing class, which was advertised in the private school that Holland was visiting at the time. In his teens, Holland briefly attended carpentry school in Cardiff, Wales. At one point, he considered becoming a primary school teacher, as he enjoys being around children.

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