Tom Felton

Thomas Andrew Felton was born on 22 September 1987 in Epsom, Surrey, England, the youngest of four sons born to Peter Felton and Sharon Anstey. Raised Anglican, Felton attended Cranmore School in West Horsley until age 11 before moving on to the Howard of Effingham School for secondary education. His maternal grandfather, geophysicist Nigel Anstey, served as his chaperone during the filming of the first Harry Potter production and portrayed one of the Hogwarts professors. Felton has credited Anstey with inspiring his creation of Draco Malfoy's signature sneer. During his childhood, Felton developed an interest in singing, participated in school choirs, and was offered a place in the Guildford Cathedral Choir.

Felton's professional career began with commercial work for companies including Commercial Union and Barclaycard before he secured his first feature film role as Peagreen Clock in Peter Hewitt's The Borrowers in 1997. In 1998 he voiced the character James in the television series Bugs, and in 1999 he played witness Thomas Ingham opposite Clive Owen in Second Sight and portrayed Louis T. Leonowens opposite Jodie Foster in Anna and the King. A return appearance in Second Sight 2 followed in 2000.

The defining chapter of Felton's screen career began when auditions were held in 1999 for the film adaptation of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Having not read the books at the time, Felton originally read for the roles of Harry Potter and Ron Weasley before being cast as Draco Malfoy. The film was released in 2001 to critical and commercial success, with one critic describing Felton's performance as "the personification of upper-class insolence." He reprised the role in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in 2002, for which he received a Disney Channel Kids Award, and continued through the entire film series, concluding with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 in 2011. His performances in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 earned him consecutive MTV Movie Awards for Best Villain in 2010 and 2011. During the years of filming, his schedule was arranged to allow him to continue attending school alongside his professional commitments.

Beyond the Harry Potter franchise, Felton built a varied screen career across film and television. He played Dodge Landon in the science-fiction film Rise of the Planet of the Apes in 2011 and appeared in the indie productions From the Rough and The Apparition in 2011 and 2012 respectively. He starred as Viscount Trencavel in the historical miniseries Labyrinth in 2012 and as James Ashford in the period drama Belle in 2013. In 2015, he recurred as a murder suspect in TNT's Murder in the First. He portrayed Doctor Alchemy on The CW's The Flash, based on the DC Comics character, beginning in 2014. Two films in which he appeared, Message from the King and A United Kingdom, both premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival. Felton co-starred in Feed, Stratton, and the biographical film Megan Leavey, all released in 2017. In 2018 he appeared as Laertes in Claire McCarthy's Ophelia and was a series regular on the sci-fi series Origin. He later portrayed the villain in the family-horror film A Babysitter's Guide to Monster Hunting in 2020.

In 2010, Felton released an original song titled "Hawaii" through Six String Productions, an independent record label he co-founded with David Proffitt and Philip Haydn-Slater with the aim of promoting creative independence and ownership of material.

On the stage, Felton made his Broadway debut in 2018 in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, bringing his association with the Harry Potter universe from screen to the theatrical world. Outside of his professional work, Felton has used his public profile for charitable purposes, including a 2007 visit to Children's Hospital in Denver, Colorado, tied to a pre-screening event for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and a 2005 appearance alongside Rupert Grint to present Liz Carnell with the Daily Mirror's Pride of Britain Award for her work in bullying awareness.