Tom Holland
Biography
Thomas Stanley Holland was born in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, to Nicola Elizabeth (Frost), a photographer, and Dominic Holland (Dominic Anthony Holland), who is a comedian and author. His paternal grandparents were from the Isle of Man and Ireland, respectively. He lives with his parents and three younger brothers - Paddy and twins Sam and Harry. Tom attended Donhead Prep School. Then, after a successful eleven plus exam, he became a pupil at Wimbledon College. Having successfully completed his GCSEs, in September 2012 Tom started a two-year course in the BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology notable for its numerous famous alumni.
Holland began dancing at a hip hop class at Nifty Feet Dance School in Wimbledon, London. His potential was spotted by choreographer Lynne Page (who was an Associate to Peter Darling, choreographer of Billy Elliot and Billy Elliot the Musical) when he performed with his dance school as part of the Richmond Dance Festival 2006. After eight auditions and subsequent two years of training, on 28 June 2008 Tom made his West End debut in Billy Elliot the Musical as Michael, Billy's best friend. He gave his first performance in the title role of Billy on 8 September 2008 getting rave reviews praising his versatile acting and dancing skills.
In September 2008 Tom (together with co-star Tanner Pflueger) appeared on the news programme on channel FIVE and gave his first TV interview. In 2009 Tom was featured on ITV1 show "The Feel Good Factor". At the launch show on 31 January he and two other Billy Elliots, Tanner Pflueger and Layton Williams, performed a specially choreographered version of Angry Dance from Billy Elliot the Musical, after which Tom was interviewed by host Myleene Klass. Then he became involved into training five ordinary British schoolboys learning to get fit and preparing their dance routine (fronted by Tom) for the final "The Feel Good Factor" show on 28 March 2009. On 11 March 2010, Tom, along with fellow Billy Elliots Dean-Charles Chapman and Fox Jackson-Keen appeared on The Alan Titchmarsh Show on ITV1.
On 8 March 2010, to mark the fifth anniversary of Billy Elliot the Musical, four current Billy Elliots, including Tom Holland, were invited to 10 Downing Street to meet the Prime Minister Gordon Brown. It was Tom Holland who was chosen to be a lead at the special fifth anniversary show on 31 March 2010. Elton John, Billy Elliot the Musical composer, who was at the audience, called Tom's performance "astonishing" and said that he was "blown away" by it. Holland had been appearing on a regular basis as Billy in Billy Elliot the Musical rotating with three other performers till 29 May 2010 when he finished his run in the musical.
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Trivia
He is the son of Dominic Holland, a top comic in the UK and a regular panelist on the Channel 5 topical discussion series The Wright Stuff (2000).
Since March 2011, his father had been writing the blog "Eclipsed", which was a weekly renewed sequential story narrating how a "somewhat famous comedian is being outshone by his more illustrious son". The blog described in detail the main events in Holland's past and present professional life. The blog came to conclusion in December 2012 when The Impossible (2012) premiered in Los Angeles.
He became best known for playing the title role in Billy Elliot the Musical at the Victoria Palace Theatre, London, as well as for starring in the The Impossible (2012). For the latter role, he became a winner of the Hollywood Spotlight Award, as well as of the National Board of Review's award in the "Breakthrough Actor" category.
He was featured in Screen International's "UK Stars of Tomorrow - 2012" and in Variety's "Youth Impact Report 2012".
His favorite film is Saving Private Ryan (1998).
His paternal grandfather, John Charles Anthony Holland, was from the Isle of Man, and his paternal grandmother, Teresa Quigley, was from Ireland. On his mother's side, Tom is the grandson of Robert Walter Frost and Christina Winifred Berry.
He was cast for the role as "Billy Elliot" on stage because he reminded Stephen Daldry of Billy Elliot (2000) star Jamie Bell.
He is the first actor to play a film incarnation of Peter Parker/Spider-Man who was also a teenager at the time of casting, having turned 19 shortly before the formal announcement in June 2015.
He is the first non-U.S-born actor to play a film incarnation of Peter Parker/Spider-Man. His predecessor, Andrew Garfield, was also raised in the U.K., but was born in the United States.
He is a supporter of the Arsenal Football Club.
He can perform back, side and front flips.
His favorite screen acting performance is Edward Norton in Primal Fear (1996).
Like his predecessor Andrew Garfield, he was a huge fan of Spider-Man before he played the role and said that playing the role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was a dream come true for him.
Personal Quotes
I think the important thing is to just take in one step at a time. I think if you rush into fame, then that's where it can be really affecting, and if you take it for granted it can be really affecting.
Civil War will be a brilliant movie, a huge movie and I'll have the support of the success of that movie so that I can go on to my own.
I'm taking every day as it comes and there's very little preparation that you can do apart from making sure you remain grounded and keep the people that are close to you close and my main goal at the moment is to make sure my work doesn't fall below a certain calibre.
When Ron Howard rings you up and says "I'd like you to do my film", you do it. I mean, he's Ron Howard. But for me, I was very interested in Thomas Nickerson and very interested to learn about what it is these men went through. I just knew it was going to be an amazing adventure, I knew it was something I was gonna be very proud of and I knew it was gonna be a challenge. I personally think if something's not a challenge there's no point doing it because you're not gonna learn much. I knew this film was gonna teach me a lot.
I've always been a huge fan of Spider-Man and growing up, I had countless Spider-Man costumes. Only two years ago did I go to a fancy dress party dressed as Spider-Man. I had this awesome morph suit where you can put your phone on your chest and spiders would crawl across the costume, it was awesome! He's always been a big part of my life and a big part of a lot of boys' lives, because everyone can kind of relate to him.
At the moment, I'm sort of developing some of my own little short film ideas, and trying to get into the directing side of things, just as an interest really, to see what it's like.
The way Ron [Howard] likes to work is that he likes to create an environment that is authentic, and he likes to create an environment where the actors are comfortable so that they can explore new ways of performing.