Tom Hollander

Thomas Anthony Hollander was born on 25 August 1967 in Bristol and was raised in Oxford. Hollander's father is a Czech Jew whose family converted to Catholicism, and his mother is English. Hollander was brought up as a Christian. The family background was academic and musical: his grandfather, Hans Hollander, was a musicologist who wrote books about the composer Janáček. Hollander's parents were teachers, his father running the science department at a school in Oxford.

He attended the Dragon School, and then Abingdon School, both in Oxfordshire, where he was chief chorister. As a youngster, he was a member of the National Youth Theatre and the National Youth Music Theatre (then known as the Children's Music Theatre). In 1981, at the age of 14, he won the lead role in a BBC dramatisation of Leon Garfield's John Diamond.

Hollander read English at Selwyn College, Cambridge, earning a 2:2 degree. He was actively involved in stage productions as a member of the Footlights and was president of the Marlowe Society. Sam Mendes, a friend and fellow student, directed him in several plays while they were at Cambridge, including a critically acclaimed production of Cyrano de Bergerac (which also featured future Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg).