Early
years
Hailing from East Sheen, London, Hardy began his career
in war dramas. He studied at Reeds School, Tower House
Prep School for Boys, the Drama Centre London and subsequently
at Richmond Drama School before winning the part of United
States Army Private John Janovec in the award-winning
HBO and BBC miniseries Band of Brothers. He made
his feature film debut in Ridley Scott's 2001 war thriller
Black Hawk Down.
Career
In 2002, Hardy appeared the independent film Dot the
i, sharing the bill with Gael García Bernal.
He then travelled to North Africa for Simon: An English
Legionnaire, a story of the French Foreign Legion.
In the same year, he gained some heavy international exposure
as the Reman Praetor Shinzon, a clone of USS Enterprise
Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) in Star
Trek: Nemesis. He returned to England to feature
in the 2003 thriller LD 50 Lethal Dose.
Hardy
was awarded the 2003 London Evening Standard Theatre Award
for Outstanding Newcomer for his performances in Blood
and 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 in the aforementioned production of
Arabia, We'd All Be Kings.
Hardy
appeared in the 2005 BBC miniseries The Virgin Queen
as Robert Dudley, a childhood friend of Elizabeth I. The
miniseries portrays them as having a platonic, though
highly romantic, affair throughout her reign over England
during the 16th century. Hardy featured in the Richard
Fell adaptation of the 1960s sci-fi series A for Andromeda,
on BBC Four.
In
2007, he appeared in the BBC Two 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
suicide. In September 2008, he appeared in director Guy
Ritchie's London gangster film, RocknRolla. He
played the role of gay gangster Handsome Bob, one of the
members of the criminal gang, the Wild Bunch, led by One
Two (Gerard Butler), whom Bob has a crush on. Hardy will
reprise the role in Ritchie's sequel The Real RocknRolla.
Later
on, in the new year he appeared in Emily Bronte's Wuthering
Heights, playing the part of Heathcliff, the classic
love character who falls in love with his childhood friend
Cathy - "the love that destroyed everything it touched".
In
early 2009, Hardy starred in the film Bronson,
about the real life prisoner Charles Bronson, who has
spent almost his entire life in solitary confinement.
For the film, he put on three stone of muscle and did
2,500 press-ups a day for five weeks.
In
June 2009 Hardy starred in the Martina Cole written 4-part
TV drama The Take on Sky One as a drugs and alcohol
fuelled gangster.
He
is signed to play the son of Nick Nolte in the 2010 film
Warrior, about a washed-up mixed martial artist.
He will be the main protagonist in the film.
Hardy
has co-written two television shows with writer Kelly
Marcel. "Candy Chops" was sold to Rob Brydon's
production company - Arbie and "Kickapoo Dust"
is owned by Left Bank.
