Tom Holland
Thomas Stanley Holland (born 1 June 1996) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, including a BAFTA Award, he was featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list of 2019. Some publications have called him one of the most popular actors of his generation.
Holland’s career began at the age of nine when he enrolled in a dancing class. 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. Later that year, he was upgraded to the title role, 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; he received critical acclaim and a nomination for Best New Actor. He then 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 TV miniseries Wolf Hall (2015).
Holland achieved international recognition playing Peter Parker/Spider-Man in six Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero films, beginning with Captain America: Civil War (2016). The following year, Holland received the BAFTA Rising Star Award and became the youngest actor to play a title role in an MCU film in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Its sequels, Far From Home (2019) and No Way Home (2021), each grossed more than $1 billion worldwide; the latter became the highest-grossing film of the year.
Holland played another action film role in Uncharted (2022), and also expanded to play against-type 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 animated features, including Spies in Disguise (2019) and Onward (2020).
Early life and education
Thomas Stanley Holland was born on 1 June 1996 in Kingston upon Thames, in south-west London, to photographer Nicola (née Frost) and comedian-author Dominic Holland. He has three younger brothers. His paternal grandmother was Irish from County Tipperary of Southern Ireland and his paternal grandfather was Manx from the Isle of Man. He 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 Preparatory School, an all-male Catholic preparatory school in Wimbledon, in the Merton borough of south west 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 the Selhurst area of Croydon.
Growing up, Holland considered several career choices. As a child, he was a fan of Janet Jackson’s songs, and often danced to them. His mother signed him up for a dancing class advertised in the private school Holland was visiting at the time. In his teens, Holland briefly attended carpentry school in Cardiff, Wales. He also considered becoming a primary school teacher, as he enjoys being around children.
Career
At age nine, Holland began dancing at a hip hop class at Nifty Feet Dance School in Wimbledon, where he performed with his school group at the 2006 Richmond Dance Festival. There, he was spotted by choreographer Lynne Page, an associate to Peter Darling, choreographer of Billy Elliot the Musical. Page arranged an audition for Holland, where the musical’s director Stephen Daldry thought that he “had great potential and was a very natural actor.”
After two years of training in ballet, tap dancing and acrobatics, Holland won the role of Michael Caffrey, the protagonist’s best friend, and made his debut performance at the West End’s Victoria Palace Theatre in June 2008. During his time performing in the musical, Holland learned gymnastics. Holland says when his peers at school found out about his dancing activities, they started bullying him.
Later in 2008, Holland and co-star Tanner Pflueger were promoted to the lead role in the musical. On his first day playing Elliot, Holland developed tonsillitis but performed on stage anyway to positive reviews; he went to the doctor the next day. Following his stage success, Holland hoped to be popular in school and that his schoolmates would stop bullying him. After being in a professional environment, he matured earlier than his peers and struggled to fit in. As a result, his GCSE grades suffered.
After his work on Billy Elliot the Musical finished in 2010, Holland voiced a role in the British dub of the Japanese animated fantasy film Arrietty (2011), and sent an audition tape to Juan Antonio Bayona for a part in The Impossible (2012). Bayona then arranged a meeting, and had Holland write a letter to his mother and recite it as an audition. Impressed with his emotional delivery, Bayona cast Holland in the film.
Public image
Nadia Khomami of The Guardian said that Holland’s “cheeky British charm, vulnerability and wit” has made him the object of infatuation on the internet. Jonathan Dean of The Sunday Times considered him to be “poised and professional, but also so confident and personable” and took note of his maturity “despite boyish wiriness”.
German actor Sönke Möhring, his co-star from The Impossible, similarly remarked on his professionalism, adding, “he is blessed with a deep soul […] down to earth, very polite and a friendly kid.” Kevin Macdonald, who directed Holland in How I Live Now, praised him as confident, “articulate and enthusiastic”, and attributed Holland’s success to his positive energy. When asked about the secret to his success, Holland said he believes in avoiding trouble and working hard.
Holland appeared on Screen International’s “UK Stars of Tomorrow – 2012”, and The Hollywood Reporter’s “Next Gen 2015”, a list of promising newcomers in film. In 2019, he featured on Forbes’ “30 Under 30 Europe”, a list of influential people under 30 years, and Insider Inc.’s “45 young stars who will one day rule Hollywood”. After appearing on Glamour’s “Hot, Young & British Actors 2020”, he was named among the best actors under 30 by Tuko, and Complex Networks in 2021.
In the former listing, Ryan Mutuku described him as “a darling to the English media” because of his openness and willingness to also give interviews not related to film promotions. Calling him “his generation’s biggest leading man” in 2021, GQ’s Oliver Franklin-Wallis wrote, “Holland has ascended to a tier of stardom few actors ever reach, and rarely so young”.
Variety editors Brent Lang and Rebecca Rubin reported in December 2021 that after the success of the Spider-Man films, Holland could become a top-paid actor in the future. They noted the current lack of young leading men in Hollywood and saw Holland’s potential to herald a new generation of successful actors. Holland is the 14th-highest-grossing film actor in the world; his films have grossed more than $9.9 billion worldwide according to The Numbers.
Holland describes himself as a private person and is reluctant to discuss his personal life. He has also discussed having frequent episodes of sleepwalking and sleep paralysis nightmares of paparazzi in his bedroom. He is a fan of the professional football club Tottenham Hotspur.
He had been in a relationship with his Spider-Man co-star, Zendaya, for some time before publicly acknowledging it in November 2021; he later discussed that he felt that the consistent media attention it received breached their privacy. The couple moved into a £3m home in London together in 2023. They became engaged in December 2024.
