Orlando Bloom

Bloom was born to Sonia Bloom (née Copeland) on 13 January 1977 in Canterbury, Kent, and was named after the 16th-century English composer Orlando Gibbons. He has an older sister, Samantha Bloom. Bloom initially believed that his biological father was his mother's husband, the South African-born anti-apartheid novelist Harry Bloom, who died when Bloom was four years old. However, when he was thirteen, Bloom's mother revealed to him that his biological father was actually Colin Stone, Harry Bloom's student and family friend. Stone, the principal of the Concorde International language school, became Orlando Bloom's legal guardian after Harry Bloom's death. Bloom is a cousin of photographer Sebastian Copeland.

Bloom was brought up in the Church of England. He attended St Peter's Methodist Primary School, then the junior school of The King's School before proceeding to St Edmund's School Canterbury. Bloom was discovered to be dyslexic, and was encouraged by his mother to take art and drama classes. After being spurred into action following his school prize submission to panto actor Richard Sieben in 1992, in 1993, he moved to London to follow a two-year A-Level course in Drama, Photography and Sculpture at Fine Arts College, Hampstead. He then joined the National Youth Theatre, spending two seasons there and earning a scholarship to train at the British American Drama Academy. Bloom began acting professionally with television roles in episodes of Casualty and Midsomer Murders, and subsequently made his film debut in Wilde (1997), opposite Stephen Fry, before entering the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where he studied acting.Bloom's first appearance on the screen was in a small role, as a rent boy, in the 1997 film Wilde. Two days after graduating from Guildhall in 1999, he was cast in his first major role, playing Legolas in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy (2001–2003). He had originally auditioned for the part of Faramir, who does not appear until the second movie, but the director, Peter Jackson, cast him as Legolas instead. While shooting a scene, he broke a rib after falling off a horse, but eventually recovered and continued shooting. At the same time, Bloom also played a brief role in Ridley Scott's war film Black Hawk Down as PFC Todd Blackburn. In 2002, he was chosen as one of the Teen People "25 Hottest Stars Under 25", despite him having turned 25, and was named People's hottest Hollywood bachelor in the magazine's 2004 list. All members of the cast of the Rings films were nominated for Best Ensemble Acting at the Screen Actors Guild Awards for three years in a row, finally winning in 2003 for the third film, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Bloom has also won other awards, including European Film Awards, Hollywood Festival Award, Empire Awards and Teen Choice Awards, and has been nominated for many others. Most of Bloom's box office successes have been as part of an ensemble cast.

Bloom next starred opposite Keira Knightley and Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, which was a blockbuster hit during the summer of 2003. After the success of Pirates, Bloom next took to the screen as Paris, the man who effectively started the Trojan War, in the 2004 Spring blockbuster, Troy opposite Brad Pitt, Eric Bana and Peter O'Toole. He subsequently played the lead roles in Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven and Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown, both released in 2005, and starred in the 2006 film Haven, which he was also executive producer. In 2006, Bloom was one of the guest stars in the sitcom Extras, in which he portrayed an exaggeratedly arrogant, narcissistic version of himself who had a great loathing for Johnny Depp (his co-star in Pirates of the Caribbean); Bloom pushed for Extras to go further by making his part unlikable, and contributed to the gag about him admiring Depp out of sheer jealousy, that Depp was far more talented than he was, not to mention rated higher than him on the 'top hottest' charts. In 2004, the second and third films of the Pirates of the Caribbean series were conceived, with screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio developing a story arc that would span both sequels, in which Bloom reprised his role as Will Turner. Filming for the projects took place in 2005; Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest released in July 2006, with the worldwide collections of $1.066 billion, becoming the biggest financial hit of Bloom's career. The third installment in the series, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, was released in May, the following year. Afterwards, Bloom repeatedly stated that he was done with Pirates series, noting that there was closure for his character in At World's End. By 2010, both Bloom and Keira Knightley were quoted in saying they wanted to move on from the franchise.

In 2006, Bloom was the most searched male on Google News. As of May 2007, Bloom has appeared in four of the top 15 highest-grossing films of all time. Bloom, who had intended to become a stage actor after graduating from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, had stated that he would like to leave films for a time and instead appear in stage roles, and is "avidly looking for the right sort of material that [he] can do something with" and go "back to basics." During the summer of 2007, he appeared in a London revival of In Celebration, a play by David Storey. His character was one of three brothers returning home for their parents' 40th wedding anniversary. On 24 August 2007 he made his first ever TV commercial appearance on late-night Japanese TV, promoting the Uno brand of cosmetics maker Shiseido. A "one night only", 2-minute version of the Sci-Fi themed commercial kicked off the product's marketing campaign. In 2008 he signed on to play a small role in the British film An Education but dropped out to take the lead in Johnnie To's film Red Circle. Also in 2009, he was one of many stars to appear in New York, I Love You, which contained 12 short films in one.

In 2011, Bloom appeared in The Three Musketeers opposite Milla Jovovich, Logan Lerman, Matthew Macfadyen, Ray Stevenson, Luke Evans, Juno Temple and Christoph Waltz. Bloom also reprised his role as Legolas in parts two and three of The Hobbit, Peter Jackson's three-part prequel to The Lord of the Rings trilogy. He made his Broadway stage debut as Romeo in Romeo and Juliet in August 2013 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. The New York Times theatre critic Ben Brantley described Bloom's performance as "a first-rate Broadway debut" in the title role: "For once, we have a Romeo who evolves substantively, from a posturing youth in love with love, to a man who discovers the startling revelation of real love, with a last-act descent into bilious, bitter anger that verges on madness." Bloom made statements about returning to the Pirates franchise as early as October 2011, and there were discussions for him to reprise his role as Will Turner by 2014. Although it was announced as a supporting role, Bloom ultimately made a cameo appearance in the fifth film, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, which was released in May 2017.

Bloom starred in the Trafalgar Studios production of Killer Joe in 2018. Bloom is currently starring in the Amazon Prime TV show Carnival Row, which was filming its second season in Prague before temporarily postponing production due to COVID-19. Together with a number of his Lord of the Rings co-stars (plus writer Philippa Boyens and director Peter Jackson), on 1 June 2020 he joined Josh Gad's YouTube series Reunited Apart which reunites the cast of popular movies through video-conferencing, and promotes donations to non-profit charities.

In July 2020, Bloom starred in the war film The Outpost in which he portrayed the character of captain Benjamin Keating. In 2023, he played Danny Moore, a Nissan marketing executive in the sports film Gran Turismo based on the true story of Jann Mardenborough.