Jack Andrew Lowden is a Scottish actor. Following a four-year stage career, his first major international onscreen success was in the 2016 BBC miniseries War & Peace, which led to starring roles in feature films.
Lowden was born on 2 June 1990 in Chelmsford, Essex, the son of Gordon and Jacquie Lowden. He grew up in the Scottish village of Oxton. In a 2019 interview, he explained: "I'm an IVF baby. And so is my brother. Down there [England] was one of the few places that was doing it." His younger brother, Calum, became a ballet dancer from a very early age at the Manor School of Ballet in Edinburgh, and later trained at the English National Ballet School and the Royal Ballet School in London; as of 2016, he is a first soloist at the Royal Swedish Ballet. As a child, Lowden attended the dance classes at Manor School of Ballet as well, but found he was better at, and more suited to, acting. He has stated that his personal ambition since childhood was to be a footballer.
When he was 10 Lowden's parents enrolled him in the Scottish Youth Theatre in Edinburgh. At age 12 he played John in a Peter Pan pantomime at the King's Theatre, Edinburgh. He attended Earlston High School, where he starred as Buddy Holly in Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story and performed in various concerts. His determination to become a professional actor came from seeing the play Black Watch on its first run in 2007. While in high school, he studied during summer school at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. He also performed regularly at the Galashiels Amateur Operatic Society, where he played the lead in a 2008 production of The Boy Friend. Lowden received a BA in acting from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow in 2011.
