Bio
Tom Hiddleston is an English actor best known for playing the role of Loki in the Marvel Studios films Thor (2011), The Avengers (2012), and Thor: The Dark World (2013).
Other notable films have included Steven Spielberg's World War I film War Horse (2011), the British drama The Deep Blue Sea (2011), Woody Allen's romantic comedy Midnight in Paris (2011), and the 2012 BBC series Henry IV and Henry V.
He won the MTV Movie Award for Best Fight and Best Villain in 2013 for his role in The Avengers.
After he was spotted by Lorraine Hamilton of the notable actors' agency Hamilton Hodell in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire, Hiddleston was given his first television role in Stephen Whittaker's adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby (2001) for ITV.
Roles followed in two one-off television dramas co-produced by HBO and the BBC. The first was Conspiracy (2001) which prompted Tom's first encounter with Kenneth Branagh. The second project came in 2002 in the critically acclaimed and Emmy Award-winning biopic of Winston Churchill The Gathering Storm, starring Albert Finney and Vanessa Redgrave.
Tom graduated from RADA in 2005, and within a few weeks was cast as Oakley in the British independent film Unrelated by first-time director Joanna Hogg. It premiered at the Times BFI 51st London Film Festival in 2007 where it was awarded the FIPRESCI International Critics' Award. Amongst many other accolades, Unrelated was cited as the 21st best film of the decade by The Guardian.
Tom subsequently met Declan Donnellan, artistic director of the award-winning theatre company Cheek By Jowl, and was cast as Alsemero in The Changeling by Thomas Middleton. Tom was nominated for the 2006 Ian Charleson Award for his performance.
In 2007 Cheek By Jowl once again asked Tom to perform for them as the hero, Posthumus Leonatus, and the anti-hero Cloten, in Declan Donnellan's production of Shakespeare's late romance, Cymbeline.
It was a role for which Tom received much critical acclaim, including from The Sunday Times who said he gave "the outstanding performance of the evening."
Later that summer, Tom shot the BAFTA award winning BBC period drama, Miss Austen Regrets, about the last five years of Jane Austen's life.
It was on the strength of his performance in Cymbeline that Tom was invited to audition to play Cassio in Michael Grandage's production of Othello at the Donmar Warehouse, starring Ewan McGregor, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Kelly Reilly.
He was nominated twice in the category of Best Newcomer at the 2008 Laurence Olivier Awards for Cymbeline and Othello and won the category for his performance in Cymbeline.
In 2008 Tom joined forces with Kenneth Branagh again to film the first season of Wallander, a BAFTA and Broadcasting Press Guild Award-winning and Emmy, Golden Globe and Satellite Award-nominated television series based on the detective novels by Swedish author Henning Mankell.
In the same year Tom went on to star in the Donmar Warehouse/West End production of Chekhov's Ivanov, again opposite Branagh, as well as Gina McKee and Andrea Riseborough.
As well as shooting the second season of Wallander in 2009, Tom also starred in the second season of the highly acclaimed BAFTA and Emmy Award-winning Return to Cranford.
In 2009 Tom also filmed Joanna Hogg's second film Archipelago, in which he plays the lead role, as well as the lead role of Loki in Kenneth Branagh's Thor for Marvel.
In 2010 Tom excelled in a number of projects including Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, Steven Spielberg's War Horse, and Terence Davies' The Deep Blue Sea opposite Rachel Weisz.
In May 2012 Tom could be seen in the feature film Avengers Assemble in which he reprised his role of the villain Loki.
2012 saw Tom nominated for a BAFTA for the Orange Wednesdays Rising Star Award and for the Evening Standard Film Award as Best Actor for his role in Archipelago.
Tom was the winner of the British Rising Star Award at The Richard Attenborough Regional Film Awards 2012 and Best Male Newcomer for his role in Thor at the 2012 Empire Awards.
Also in 2012, he had a starring role in the miniseries The Hollow Crown.