Thomas William Hiddleston, popularly known as Tom Hiddleston, is a British actor. After starting out in London’s West End Theatre, Hiddleston moved on to television in the early 2000’s and subsequently rose to prominence with his film debut in the 2006 drama Unrelated. Since then, the actor has gone on to establish himself as a global star, courtesy of his portrayal of Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Besides mainstream blockbusters, Hiddleston has also appeared in critically acclaimed films like Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris (2011) and Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive (2013). In 2017, the actor won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Limited Series Made for Television for his performance in the British crime drama The Night Manager.

Early Life
Thomas William Hiddleston was born in Westminster, London. His mother, Diana Patricia Hiddleston, is a former stage manager while his father, James Norman Hiddleston, is a scientist. Hiddleston has two siblings: his elder sister Sarah is a journalist and his younger sister Emma is an actress.

After completing his preparatory schooling at The Dragon School in Oxford, he attended the Eton College and subsequently joined the University of Cambridge, where he studied Classics. Hiddleston then joined the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he studied acting.

Personal Life
Between 2008 and 2011, Hiddleston dated his Wallander co-star Susannah Fielding. The actor has since been linked to several celebrities, from record producer Jane Arthy to actress Jessica Chastain. In mid-2016, Hiddleston started dating singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, but the couple allegedly broke up after just a few months together.

Movie Career
Hiddleston made his film debut with the drama film Unrelated (2006), where he played one of the central characters. The movie went on to win an International Federation of Film Critics Award at the London Film Festival that year. After a four-year hiatus during which he mainly focused on his television career, the actor made his big screen comeback with the family drama Archipelago (2010). Despite a lukewarm reception from the audience, the film was an overwhelming favourite with the critics, and landed three Evening Standard British Film Awards nominations that year, including a Best Actor nomination for Hiddleston.

The actor’s breakout role came with the superhero film Thor (2011), where he played the supervillain Loki. A critical and commercial success, Thor made Hiddleston a Hollywood star overnight, earning him an Empire Award for Best Male Newcomer and a BAFTA Rising Star Award nomination. In the same year, he appeared in supporting roles in two other high-profile movies: Steven Spielberg’s war drama War Horse and Woody Allen’s fantasy romantic-comedy Midnight in Paris. Both the movies went on to land multiple nominations at the Academy Awards, BAFTA and Golden Globes that year, with Midnight in Paris winning the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

In the following year, Hiddleston appeared alongside Rachel Weisz in the romantic drama The Deep Blue Sea (2012), where he played a Royal Air Force pilot whose liaison with a socialite comes at a heavy price to the latter. Despite the strongly favourable reviews, the movie failed to do well at the box office. Hiddleston then reprised his role as Loki in the ensemble superhero film The Avengers (2012), where he starred alongside Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Chris Hemsworth, Stellan Skarsgard and Samuel L. Jackson. The film’s box office success was unparallelled, as it grossed over $1.5 billion worldwide. The Avengers also toppled numerous box office records in the course of its theatrical run and Hiddleston won an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain in his second outing as Loki.

In 2013, Hiddleston was cast in Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive opposite Tilda Swinton. The film, which was nominated for the Palm d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, earned the actor much praise for his portrayal of Adam, a distraught vampire with a penchant for music. The offbeat drama was followed by his third outing as Loki, in Thor: The Dark World. The film received mixed to positive reviews, and raked in over $640 million at the box office, while Hiddleston received Best Supporting Actor nominations at the Saturn Awards and Empire Awards for his performance.

In 2015, the actor starred in Guillermo del Toro’s gothic romance film, Crimson Peak. The film was a moderate box office success and received generally positive reviews. The dystopian thriller High-Rise and the biographical drama I Saw the Light were Hiddleston’s other major releases in 2015, but both the films failed to make an impact critically and commercially despite the hype.

The sci-fi fantasy adventure Kong: Skull Island and the third installment in the Thor series, Thor: Ragnarok, are the actor’s most anticipated projects in 2017.

Television Career
Hiddleston made his television debut in 2001 with a minor role in the feature-length adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby. His first notable role came in the following year, in the BBC-HBO co-production The Gathering Storm, which chronicled Winston Churchill’s life in the years leading up to the Second World War. Hiddleston essayed the role of the former British prime minister’s son Randolph Churchill in the film. The actor portrayed yet another real-life character in the television film A Waste of Shame (2005), where he played John Hall - a physician in Elizabethan England and the son-in-law of William Shakespeare.

In 2006, Hiddleston was cast in a key role in the satirical black comedy Suburban Shootout. The actor’s breakout role in television came in 2008, when he was cast in a supporting role in the acclaimed crime drama Wallander. Hiddleston landed a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the Crime Thriller Awards for his turn as Magnus Martinsson. In 2012, Hiddleston appeared in the television adaptation of two Shakespearean plays: Henry IV and Henry V - both of which were extremely well-received. The actor then starred opposite Hugh Laurie in the crime-drama The Night Manager, which was based on John le Carre’s novel of the same name. The series received rave reviews and went on to become an awards season favourite, with Hiddleston winning a Golden Globe for Best Actor for his portrayal of Jonathan Pine.