Tom Hiddleston

Hiddleston resides in the Belsize Park area of north-west London. He is an avid supporter of Arsenal Football Club.

From 2008 to 2011, Hiddleston was in a relationship with English actress Susannah Fielding, whom he met while filming the television series Wallander. In 2016, he briefly dated American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift.

Hiddleston began a relationship with English actress and writer Zawe Ashton after they co-starred in the 2019 West End and Broadway revivals of Harold Pinter's play Betrayal. The couple announced their engagement in March 2022 and married in February 2025. They have two children, welcoming their first child in October 2022.

A dedicated philanthropist and feminist, Hiddleston has served as a UK ambassador for UNICEF, traveling to Guinea in 2013 and South Sudan in 2015 and 2016 to support humanitarian efforts. He has also participated regularly in Soccer Aid charity football matches as a player and manager for England.

Thomas William Hiddleston was born on 9 February 1981 in the Westminster district of London. His mother, Diana Patricia (née Servaes), worked as an arts administrator and stage manager, while his Scottish-born father, Dr. James Norman Hiddleston, was a physical chemist and biotechnology company managing director. Through his maternal lineage, he is a great-grandson of Vice-Admiral Reginald Servaes and a great-great-grandson of baronet Sir Edmund Vestey. He grew up alongside an older sister, Sarah, and a younger sister, Emma, living in Wimbledon before moving to a village near Oxford.

Hiddleston attended Windlesham House School and the Dragon School in Oxford before boarding at Eton College at age thirteen, during the period his parents divorced. He went on to study Classics at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he earned a double first honours degree. While performing in a university production of A Streetcar Named Desire, he was discovered by talent agent Lorraine Hamilton. He then trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London, graduating in 2005.

Hiddleston began acting professionally on television while still at university, appearing in the 2001 adaptation of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, the HBO/BBC film Conspiracy (2001), and as Randolph Churchill in The Gathering Storm (2002). Following his graduation from RADA, he made his feature film debut as Oakley in Joanna Hogg's acclaimed independent film Unrelated (2007), appearing alongside his sister Emma. He reunited with Hogg for her 2010 film Archipelago.

His early theatrical work established his reputation in classical drama. Performing with Declan Donnellan's Cheek by Jowl company, he starred in Thomas Middleton's The Changeling (2006) and Shakespeare's Cymbeline (2007), winning the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Newcomer in a Play for the latter. In 2008, he played Cassio in Michael Grandage's Donmar Warehouse staging of Othello opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor and Ewan McGregor, and starred as Lvov in Chekhov's Ivanov alongside Kenneth Branagh. His television work in this period included portraying Magnus Martinsson in the BBC detective series Wallander and William Buxton in Return to Cranford.

Hiddleston achieved global fame when Kenneth Branagh cast him as the Norse god of mischief, Loki, in Marvel Studios' Thor (2011). Hiddleston had initially auditioned for the title role, gaining twenty pounds of muscle before Branagh and Marvel producers determined he was suited to play the film's complex antagonist. He reprised the character to widespread acclaim in The Avengers (2012), Thor: The Dark World (2013), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019).

Between 2021 and 2023, Hiddleston starred in and executive produced the Disney+ series Loki. The production explored the character's journey across two seasons and earned widespread praise for his performance. He also voiced alternate versions of Loki in the animated series What If...? and in several Simpsons animated crossover shorts on Disney+.

Alongside his superhero appearances, Hiddleston worked with prominent film directors across various genres. In 2011, he portrayed author F. Scott Fitzgerald in Woody Allen's romantic comedy Midnight in Paris, Captain Nicholls in Steven Spielberg's World War I drama War Horse, and Freddie Page in Terence Davies's The Deep Blue Sea. He subsequently starred as the centuries-old vampire Adam in Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) opposite Tilda Swinton, Sir Thomas Sharpe in Guillermo del Toro's gothic horror Crimson Peak (2015), and Dr. Robert Laing in Ben Wheatley's adaptation of J. G. Ballard's High-Rise (2015).

In 2015, Hiddleston portrayed country music legend Hank Williams in the biopic I Saw the Light, performing all of his own vocals and guitar playing for the film's soundtrack. He entered blockbuster territory once more as former SAS captain James Conrad in Kong: Skull Island (2017), which grossed over $566 million worldwide. In 2024, he starred in Mike Flanagan's film adaptation of Stephen King's The Life of Chuck, which won the People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.

On television, Hiddleston portrayed Prince Hal and King Henry V in BBC Two's Shakespeare adaptation series The Hollow Crown (2012). In 2016, he starred as Jonathan Pine opposite Hugh Laurie in the BBC/AMC espionage miniseries The Night Manager, based on John le Carré's novel. Hiddleston won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film and earned two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his performance and production role. In 2022, he starred as Reverend Will Ransome opposite Claire Danes in Apple TV+'s period drama The Essex Serpent.

Hiddleston maintained an active presence in high-profile theatrical productions throughout his screen career. From late 2013 to early 2014, he played the title character in Josie Rourke's staging of Coriolanus at the Donmar Warehouse, earning an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor. In 2017, he starred in a limited run of Hamlet directed by Kenneth Branagh to raise funds for RADA, after which he was presented with Johnston Forbes-Robertson's historic 'Red Book' copy of the play.

In 2019, Hiddleston led Jamie Lloyd's sold-out West End revival of Harold Pinter's Betrayal, playing Robert. The production transferred to Broadway for a limited run at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, marking Hiddleston's Broadway debut and earning him a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Play. In 2025, he returned to the West End to star as Benedick alongside Hayley Atwell in Lloyd's staging of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, setting historic box office records for a West End play.

Hiddleston has also worked extensively as a narrator, lending his voice to the BBC's Galápagos (2006), Apple TV+'s docuseries Earth at Night in Color (2020-2021), Big Beasts (2023), and Earthsounds (2024), as well as animated projects such as Nick Park's Early Man (2018).