Edward Thomas Hardy  (born 15 September 1977) is an English actor and producer.

After studying acting at the Drama Centre London, he made his film debut in Ridley
Scott's Black Hawk Down (2001) and has since appeared in such films as Star Trek:
Nemesis (2002), RocknRolla (2008), Bronson (2008), Warrior (2011), Tinker Tailor
Soldier Spy (2011), Lawless (2012), Locke (2013), The Drop (2014), and The
Revenant (2015), for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best
Supporting Actor. In 2015, Hardy portrayed "Mad" Max Rockatansky in Mad Max: Fury
Road and both Kray twins in Legend. He has appeared in three Christopher
Nolan films: Inception (2010), The Dark Knight Rises (2012) as Bane,
and Dunkirk (2017) as an RAF fighter-pilot. He starred as Eddie Brock / Venom in the
2018 anti-hero film Venom.
Hardy's television roles include the HBO war drama mini-series Band of
Brothers (2001), the BBC historical drama mini-series The Virgin Queen (2005), Bill
Sikes in the BBC's mini-series Oliver Twist (2007), ITV's Wuthering Heights (2008),
the Sky 1 drama series The Take (2009), and the BBC historical crime drama
series Peaky Blinders (2013–). He created, co-produced, and took the lead in the eight-
part historical fiction series Taboo (2017) on BBC One and FX.
Hardy has performed on both British and American stages. He was nominated for
the Laurence Olivier Award for Most Promising Newcomer for his role as Skank in the
production of In Arabia We'd All Be Kings (2003), and was awarded the 2003 London
Evening Standard Theatre Award for Outstanding Newcomer for his performances in
both In Arabia We'd All Be Kings and for his role as Luca in Blood. He starred in the
production of The Man of Mode (2007) and received positive reviews for his role in the
play The Long Red Road (2010).
Hardy is active in charity work and is an ambassador for the Prince's Trust. He was
appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2018 Birthday
Honours for services to drama.
Edward Thomas Hardy was born on 15 September 1977 in Hammersmith, London, the
only child of artist and painter Anne (née Barrett) and novelist and comedy
writer Edward "Chips" Hardy. His mother is of Irish descent. Hardy was brought up
in East Sheen, London. He studied at Tower House School, Reed's School, and Duff
Miller Sixth Form College. He later studied at Richmond Drama School and the Drama
Centre London, a part of Central Saint Martins. He has named Gary Oldman as his
"hero", adding that he mirrored scenes from the actor while at drama school.

In 1998, Hardy won The Big Breakfast's Find Me a Supermodel competition at age 21

(and with it a brief contract with Models One). Hardy joined Drama Centre London in
September 1998, and was taken out early after winning the part of US Army Private
John Janovec in the award-winning HBO-BBC mini-series Band of Brothers. He made
his feature film debut in Ridley Scott's war thriller Black Hawk Down (2001). During this
time, Hardy also had a brief stint as a rapper and hip hop producer with his friend
Edward Tracy (under the name "Tommy No 1 + Eddie Too Tall"), with whom he
recorded a mixtape called Falling On Your Arse In 1999 that remained unreleased until
2018.
In 2002, Hardy gained considerable international exposure as
the Reman Praetor Shinzon, a clone of USS Enterprise Captain Jean-Luc
Picard in Star Trek: Nemesis. The following year, he appeared in the film Dot the i, and
then travelled to North Africa for Simon: An English Legionnaire, a story of the French
Foreign Legion. He then returned to the United Kingdom to feature in the horror film LD
50 Lethal Dose (2003).
Hardy was awarded the 2003 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Outstanding
Newcomer for his performances in Blood and In Arabia We'd All Be Kings performed at
the Royal Court Theatre and Hampstead Theatre. He was also nominated for a
2004 Laurence Olivier Award for Most Promising Newcomer of 2003 in a Society of
London Theatre Affiliate for his performance as Skank in the aforementioned production
of In Arabia We'd All Be Kings. Hardy appeared with Emilia Fox in the BBC mini-
series The Virgin Queen (2005) as Robert Dudley, a childhood friend of Elizabeth I.
Dudley's character has been described as an ambiguous young man who is torn
between the affection of his wife (played by Fox), his love for Elizabeth and his own
ambitions. Hardy featured in the BBC Four adaptation of the 1960s science
fiction series A for Andromeda. In 2007, he appeared in BBC Two's drama based on a
true story, Stuart: A Life Backwards. He played the lead role of Stuart Shorter, a
homeless man who had been subjected to years of abuse and whose death was
possibly a suicide. The same year he played Bill Sikes in the BBC mini-series Oliver
Twist, an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ novel that aired on PBS Masterpiece Classic in
the US.