Biography
With a foundation in classical dramatic training, Orlando Bloom was extremely well prepared to become a major player in more than one multi-million dollar film franchise. Born in Canterbury, England in 1977, Bloom was encouraged by his mother to pursue training in the arts, eventually moving to London during high school to complete a two-year A Level course in Drama, Photography, and Sculpture at Fine Arts College, Hampstead. During this same time, Bloom joined the National Youth Theatre and began landing professional acting jobs as well, appearing in a three episode arc on the series "Casualty" (BBC, 1986-). He even acted opposite the acclaimed Stephen Fry in "Wilde" (1997) before enrolling at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He graduated in 1999 and only two days later, he landed one of the biggest roles of his career as the archer elf Legolas in Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" (2001). The scope of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy made Bloom an international star, and by the time the third film in the franchise, "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (2003) was released in 2003, Bloom was beginning a new epic franchise, appearing with Kiera Knightley and Johnny Depp in "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" (2003). Epic films seemed to be Bloom's main wheelhouse for the next few years, as he played Paris, the Greek prince whose actions predicate the Trojan War in "Troy" (2004) and crusader Balian de Ibelin in Ridley Scott's "Kingdom of Heaven" (2005). Bloom appeared in smaller-scale films like "Elizabethtown" (2005) and "Love and Other Disasters" (2006) before returning to the swashbuckling genre for "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" (2007), in 2007. After another brief period of smaller movies like "Main Street" (2010) and "Sympathy for Delicious" (2010), Bloom was returned to the large-scale world of major franchises, reprising the role of Legolas for the "Lord of the Rings" universe movies "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" (2013) and "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies" (2014). Another "Pirates" movie came in 2017, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales" (2017), and Bloom once again followed this with a period of artistic exploration, starring in the indie drama "Romans" (2017) and then joining British-Chinese action thriller "S.M.A.R.T. Chase" (2017). In 2019, Bloom took on a new challenge, starring with Cara Delevinge in the steampunk influenced fantasy-horror mystery series "Carnival Row" (Amazon, 2019-).
