Douglas Booth

Douglas John Booth was born in Greenwich, London, to Vivien (née De Cala), a painter, and Simon Booth, a shipping finance consultant and former managing director of both CitiGroup and Deutsche Bank's shipping finance divisions. Booth's father is English, and his mother is of Spanish and Dutch ancestry. His older sister, Abigail, is a Chelsea School of Art graduate. Booth spent his early childhood in Greenwich and moved to Sevenoaks, Kent at the age of ten.

Booth is severely dyslexic and found it "very hard" to read or write up until the age of ten; he remains "a really slow reader". He struggled at school, "having to put in double or triple the amount of effort as everyone else" but said the condition made him "more resilient in every sense". He played the trumpet as a child. Booth took his first major roles in musicals presented by the Sackville Children's Choir at the Stag Theatre in Sevenoaks. He played Leader of the Rats in Rats! The Musical, and Uncle Andrew in The Magician's Nephew. He further developed his interest in drama at the age of twelve, after starring in a school production of Agamemnon: "I found myself feeling really engaged for the first time ... I thought, 'I rather like being the centre of attention. This is where I want to be.'" By the age of thirteen, he was involved with the National Youth Theatre and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Booth received both private and state education; he attended Solefield School, a boys' junior independent school in Sevenoaks, followed by Bennett Memorial Diocesan School, a Church of England state Voluntary Aided school in the town of Royal Tunbridge Wells (Kent), and Lingfield Notre Dame School, an independent school in the village of Lingfield in Surrey.

Booth joined the Curtis Brown acting agency at the age of fifteen. He won his first professional acting role at the age of sixteen and quit his AS levels in drama, media studies and English literature.