Tom Hopper

Thomas Edward Hopper is an English actor who has built a prolific career across television and film productions. He is best known for his prominent television roles, including playing Sir Percival in the BBC series Merlin, Billy Bones in the Starz drama Black Sails, Dickon Tarly in the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones, and Luther Hargreeves in the Netflix series The Umbrella Academy.

Hopper was born on January 28, 1985, in Coalville, Leicestershire. He attended Ashby School, where his interest in acting initially developed after enrolling in a drama class and appearing in a school production of the musical Return to the Forbidden Planet. He later pursued higher education in the dramatic arts, studying acting at Rose Bruford College.

His professional acting career began on stage with a production of As You Like It at the Watford Palace Theatre. He subsequently made appearances on several television shows, including Casualty, Kingdom, and Doctors, as well as the feature film Saxon. In May 2009, he featured as Marcus in the comedy-horror film Tormented, playing a character involved in a story about a resurrected teenager seeking revenge.

In 2010, Hopper made an appearance in an episode of Doctor Who and was cast as Sir Percival in Merlin. He joined the cast during its third season and remained a regular performer until the series concluded in 2012. Following his time on Merlin, he appeared in the 2012 television series Good Cop and starred in the 2013 drama Cold, which was directed by his former co-star Eoin Macken and later released in the United States under the title Leopard. In 2014, he played the role of Asbjörn in the film Northmen: A Viking Saga.

Hopper achieved further visibility when he became the first actor cast in the Starz pirate drama Black Sails, portraying Billy Bones from 2014 through 2017 in a production filmed in South Africa. In 2016, he featured in the thriller Kill Ratio and an episode of Barbarians Rising. The following year, he joined the seventh season of Game of Thrones, taking over the role of Dickon Tarly.

In 2018, Hopper co-starred in the feature comedy I Feel Pretty alongside Amy Schumer. Beginning in 2019, he starred as Luther Hargreeves in The Umbrella Academy, a role for which he undertook martial arts training and wore a specialized muscle suit. His subsequent film work includes SAS: Red Notice, Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard, and the 2021 game adaptation Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, where he portrayed Captain Albert Wesker. In September 2022, he starred in the Netflix feature Love in the Villa.

In his personal life, Hopper married actress Laura Higgins in 2014. The couple has two children, a son and a daughter.