Tom Holland facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Tom Holland
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Holland in 2016
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Thomas Stanley Holland
1 June 1996 London, England
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| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 2006–present |
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Thomas Stanley Holland (born 1 June 1996) is an English actor. He is famous for playing Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies. He has won important awards, like a BAFTA Award. He was even on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list in 2019, which highlights successful young people. Many people say he is one of the most popular actors of his age group.
Tom started acting when he was just nine years old. He was in a dancing class when a choreographer saw him. This led to an audition for the musical Billy Elliot the Musical in London. After two years of training, he got a small part in 2008. Later that year, he became the main character, Billy Elliot, and played the role until 2010. His first movie was the disaster film The Impossible (2012). In it, he played a teenager caught in a tsunami. People loved his acting, and he was even nominated for an award.
After this, Tom decided to become a full-time actor. He appeared in How I Live Now (2013) and played real people in the movie In the Heart of the Sea (2015) and the TV show Wolf Hall (2015). Tom became famous worldwide when he played Spider-Man in six MCU superhero films. He first appeared as Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War (2016). The next year, he won the BAFTA Rising Star Award. He also became the youngest actor to play a main character in an MCU movie with Spider-Man: Homecoming. The follow-up movies, Far From Home (2019) and No Way Home (2021), each made over $1 billion around the world. No Way Home was the highest-earning movie of 2021.
Tom also starred in the action movie Uncharted (2022). He took on different kinds of roles in crime dramas like The Devil All the Time (2020) and Cherry (2021). Tom has also directed a short film called Tweet (2015). He has lent his voice to animated movies such as Spies in Disguise (2019) and Onward (2020).
Contents
Tom Holland's Life and Career
Early Life and School Days
Thomas Stanley Holland was born on 1 June 1996 in Kingston upon Thames, a town in south west London. His mother, Nicola, is a photographer, and his father, Dominic Holland, is a comedian and writer. Tom has three younger brothers. His grandmother on his father's side was from Ireland, and his grandfather was from the Isle of Man. He lives in Kingston upon Thames, close to his parents and brothers. His parents work in creative jobs, and they often inspire him. He sees his father as a role model who helps him with his career.
Tom went to Donhead, an all-boys Catholic school in Wimbledon. When he was seven, he found out he had dyslexia, which makes reading and writing harder. His parents sent him and his brothers to a private school so he could get the help he needed. Even though Tom liked the new school, it cost a lot of money for his family. Later, Tom went to Wimbledon College, a Jesuit school, and then to the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in Croydon.
When he was growing up, Tom thought about different jobs. As a child, he loved Janet Jackson's songs and often danced to them. His mother signed him up for a dancing class. When he was a teenager, Tom also briefly went to carpentry school in Cardiff, Wales. He also thought about becoming a primary school teacher because he enjoys being around children.
Starting His Acting Journey
At age nine, Tom started dancing hip hop at Nifty Feet Dance School in Wimbledon. He performed with his school group at a dance festival in 2006. There, a choreographer named Lynne Page saw him. She worked with Peter Darling, who was the choreographer for Billy Elliot the Musical. Lynne Page set up an audition for Tom. The musical's director, Stephen Daldry, thought Tom "had great potential and was a very natural actor."
After two years of training in ballet, tap dancing, and acrobatics, Tom won the role of Michael Caffrey, the main character's best friend. He first performed at the West End's Victoria Palace Theatre in June 2008. While in the musical, Tom also learned gymnastics. Tom said that when his friends at school found out he was dancing, they started to tease him.
Later in 2008, Tom and another actor, Tanner Pflueger, were chosen to play the main role of Billy Elliot. On his first day playing Billy, Tom got tonsillitis but still performed. He received good reviews. After his success on stage, Tom hoped to be popular at school and that the teasing would stop. Being in a professional acting environment made him grow up faster than his friends, and he found it hard to fit in. This also affected his school grades.
After his time in Billy Elliot the Musical ended in 2010, Tom voiced a character in the English version of the Japanese animated film Arrietty (2011). He then sent an audition video to Juan Antonio Bayona for a part in The Impossible (2012). Bayona met with Tom and asked him to write a letter to his mother and read it as an audition. Bayona was impressed with how emotional Tom was, and he cast him in the movie.
In The Impossible, Tom played a teenager caught with his family in the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. Moving from stage acting to movie acting was hard at first for Tom. He and his co-star Naomi Watts filmed scenes in a huge water tank, which was very tiring for them. Working with Naomi Watts made Tom realize he wanted to be an actor forever. The Impossible was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. It was a big success, earning a lot of money. Tom received great praise for his acting. A. O. Scott from The New York Times called Tom "a terrific young actor." Tom won several awards for his role. He also appeared in the drama film How I Live Now (2013), voiced a small role in Locke (2013), and had a quick appearance in Billy Elliot the Musical Live (2014).
Tom appeared in four episodes of the BBC Two historical TV show Wolf Hall (2015). He played Gregory Cromwell, the son of the main character. He also directed a 3-minute short film called Tweet (2015) about a young man building a birdhouse. Tom has said he wants to direct full movies when he is older. Also in 2015, Tom played the teenage sailor Thomas Nickerson in Ron Howard's adventure-drama In the Heart of the Sea. This movie is based on a true story about a whaling ship that sank in 1820. To get ready for the film, Tom and his co-stars, including Chris Hemsworth, lost a lot of weight. Tom did most of his own stunts in the movie.
Becoming Spider-Man and More
In June 2015, Tom signed a deal with Marvel Studios to play a teenage Peter Parker / Spider-Man in six movies. Growing up, Tom was a big fan of Spider-Man. He even owned 30 Spider-Man costumes! He auditioned against 1,500 other teenagers from all over the world. The directors chose Tom because of his dancing and gymnastics skills. Stan Lee, who created Spider-Man, said Tom was the "exact age and height" he imagined for the character.
As part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Tom first appeared as Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War (2016). The movie was a huge success, earning over $1.1 billion worldwide. In 2016, Tom also starred in the thriller Edge of Winter. At the 70th British Academy Film Awards in 2017, Tom won the BAFTA Rising Star Award. His next movie was The Lost City of Z with Charlie Hunnam. On his last day of filming, Tom broke his nose trying a backflip! He played the son of an explorer looking for a lost city in the Amazon rainforest. Later in 2017, Tom played Samuel Insull in The Current War.
Tom's second movie in 2017 was his own Spider-Man film, Spider-Man: Homecoming. Because of this, Tom got into the Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest actor to play a main character in the MCU. Tom took some ideas from previous Spider-Man actors but wanted to make the character new. Homecoming showed Peter Parker trying to balance being a high school student and a superhero. To prepare, Tom went to a high school in the Bronx for a few days. Other students didn't believe he was cast as Spider-Man, which Tom felt was like the movie's story where people don't know Peter is Spider-Man. Both Homecoming and Tom's acting received great reviews. The movie made over $800 million worldwide. Tom's last role in 2017 was in the Irish film Pilgrimage. Outside of movies, Tom appeared with Zendaya on Lip Sync Battle, where he performed Rihanna’s "Umbrella" in a memorable way. His parents started The Brothers Trust, a charity that uses his fame to help people.
Recent Movies and Projects
Tom played Spider-Man again in Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). These movies were filmed one after the other. Each movie earned more than $2 billion. Endgame even became the highest-grossing film of all time for a short time. Tom then starred in the sequel Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019). This movie also received good reviews and was the first Spider-Man film to earn $1 billion. It was the fourth highest-earning movie of 2019. Ben Travis from Empire magazine said Tom was "a note-perfect Spider-Man — still funnier and more believably teenage." Tom won his third Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor for Far From Home.
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He also voiced characters in the animated films Spies in Disguise (2019), Dolittle (2020), and Onward (2020). The last two were with his MCU co-stars Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Pratt.
Tom starred with Sebastian Stan in the Netflix thriller The Devil All the Time (2020), which was set after World War II. Tom found this role challenging but enjoyed playing it. Critics said that Tom gave a strong performance and showed his acting range.
In 2021, Tom starred in three movies. His first was the crime drama Cherry, which reunited him with the Russo brothers, who directed the Avengers movies. For this role, Tom lost and then gained a lot of weight. Critics felt the film allowed Tom to show his skills as an actor. Tom next played a young man on a planet called New World in Chaos Walking, with Daisy Ridley. This movie faced delays and did not do well.
In November 2021, Tom voiced Percy Pig in Christmas advertisements for Marks & Spencer. The next month, Tom played Peter Parker again in Spider-Man: No Way Home. After playing more serious roles, Tom found it a bit strange to go back to playing Parker, especially needing to use a higher voice and think like a "naïve, charming teenager." He called No Way Home the "most ambitious standalone superhero movie ever made." Even though it came out during the COVID-19 pandemic, No Way Home quickly became the highest-earning film of 2021 and the sixth highest-earning film of all time. It was also the first movie since 2019 to earn over $1 billion. Critics loved No Way Home, with many praising Tom's performance.
Tom has talked about his future as Spider-Man after No Way Home. He said in 2021 that he was not sure about playing the role after he turns 30 in 2026. He would like to see a Spider-Man movie with Miles Morales as the main character. However, producer Amy Pascal wants Tom to keep playing the role. In 2022, Tom invested in Dogpound gyms. He also starred as a young Nathan Drake, a treasure hunter, in the movie Uncharted, based on the video game series. To prepare for scenes where his character worked as a bartender, Tom actually worked shifts at a pub in London. While Uncharted received mixed reviews, Tom's star power likely helped it succeed at the box office.
Tom also produced and starred in the Apple TV+ show The Crowded Room (2023). He played a character based on a real person named Billy Milligan. This role was very emotionally challenging for him, and he said he would take a year off from work to recover. In May 2024, he returned to the stage to play Romeo in a new production of Romeo and Juliet in London.
In 2024, Tom started his own production company, Billy17, and made a deal with Sony Pictures. His upcoming films include The Odyssey, based on the epic poems by Homer. He will film this alongside his fourth Spider-Man movie, which includes Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars.
Personal Life and Interests
Tom likes to keep his personal life private. He has talked about having frequent sleepwalking and sleep paralysis nightmares about photographers in his bedroom.
He has been in a relationship with his Spider-Man co-star, Zendaya. They confirmed their relationship in November 2021. Tom has said that the constant media attention on their relationship made him feel their privacy was invaded. In January 2025, it was confirmed that he and Zendaya were engaged.
See also
In Spanish: Tom Holland para niños
