Orlando Bloom

Orlando Bloom was born on January 13, 1977 in Canterbury, England to Harry and Sonia Bloom. Orlando's father died when he was only four years old. He was raised by his mother and a family friend, Colin Stone, who wound up being his biological father. He has an older sister named Samantha.

He went to school at the St. Edmund school in Canterbury where he excelled in the arts. He also began to recite poetry with his sister at local venues and even the Kent Festival. They were very good, and even won many awards for their recitals.

In 1993, he moved to London and joined the National Youth Theatre which helped him receive local acting jobs. His first movie role came in 1997 in the motion picture Wilde.

In 1998, he attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Everything was looking up, until he took a three story fall from a rooftop. Luckily, he recovered and the following year, director Peter Jackson was sitting in a theatre where Orlando was performing and soon asked him to audition for one of his new movies.

Orlando graduated Guildhall in 1999, but he also auditioned for Jackson, and received the role as Legolas in the Lord of the Rings trilogy of movies (he first auditioned for the role as Faramir). This role lead him to new heights of fame.

Awards won by Orlando for the Lord of the Rings include:

Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (2001): Cinescape Genre Face of the Future Award for Outstanding Male (nominated); Empire Award for Best Debut; MTV Movie Award Breakthrough Male Performance; PFCS Award for Best Ensemble Acting; Screen Acting Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Theatrical Motion Picture (nominated) - shared

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002): Screen Acting Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Theatrical Motion Picture (nominated) - shared; AFI Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (nominated); PFCS Award for Best Ensemble Acting

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003): BFCA Award for Best Acting Ensemble - shared; Empire Award for Best British Actor (nominated); NBR Award for Best Acting by an Ensemble - shared; Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture - shared; PFCS Award for Best Ensemble Acting (nominated)

In 2003, Orlando appeared in critically acclaimed Ned Kelly and was nominated for the AFI Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

He also appeared in another box office hit in 2003, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl where he was nominated for the MTV Movie Award Best On-Screen Team which he shared with Johnny Depp

In addition, he was awarded two more awards in 2003, the MTV Movie Award for Best Trans-Atlantic Breakthrough Performer and the Hollywood Film Festival's Hollywood Discovery Award for Breakthrough Acting - Male.

Broke up with actress Kate Bosworth in January 2005 after going together for more than three years. Then they got back together a few months later, then broke up again. According to Superficial.com he was caught kissing Sienna Miller in July 2005 (click here for story).

Orlando has appeared in 2005 in the controversial film Kingdom of Heaven and will appear again later this year in the star studded Elizabethtown.

He will team up again with Johnny Depp in 2006 for a sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean - and a third movie due to be released in 2007 is currently filming. In 2006 he will also be appearing in Love and Other Disasters and a French film entitled Paris, je t'aime.

Filmography

Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End (2007) (post-production) Will Turner
Love and Other Disasters (2006) Hollywood Paolo
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) Will Turner
Elizabethtown (2005) Drew Baylor
Kingdom of Heaven (2005) Balian
Haven (2004) Shy
Troy (2004) Paris
The Calcium Kid (2004) Jimmy Connelly
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) Legolas
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) Will Turner
Ned Kelly (2003) Joseph Byrne
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) Legolas Greenleaf
Black Hawk Down (2001) Todd Blackburn
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) Legolas Greenleaf
"Midsomer Murders" Peter Drinkwater (1 episode, 2000)
Wilde (1997) Rent Boy