Tom Mison

English television and stage actor Tom Mison worked steadily for nearly a decade in his native country before finding stardom on the other side of the Atlantic as the lead in the American television series "Sleepy Hollow" (Fox, 2013- ). Mison began his career in the British theater before making the jump to television in the mid-2000s. Initially cast in minor and guest roles, he quickly graduated to featured and supporting parts in "Parade's End" (BBC/HBO, 2012) and the occasional feature like "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" (2011). "Sleepy Hollow," which cast him as a modern version of Ichabod Crane, provided Mison with a breakthrough project and a bona fide hit. The extraordinary wave of positive press that followed his work on the series served as clear indication that Mison's star was on the rise.

Born July 23, 1982 in Woking, a town in the west of Surrey, England, Tom Mison developed an interest in acting in his early teens, and honed his talents at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Roles in classical and modern drama on the British stage preceded his small screen debut in Russell Mulcahy's adaptation of Jules Verne's "Mysterious Island" (Hallmark Channel, 2005) with Patrick Stewart and Kyle MacLachlan. His first screen appearance, as a period film fan in the independent drama "Venus" with Peter O'Toole, came in 2006, preceded a slew of guest roles in UK television projects like the critically acclaimed "Lost in Austen" (ITV, 2008) and "Inspector Lewis" (ITV, 2006-2013).

In 2008, he joined his fellow Webber Douglas alum, Rupert Friend, to write and star in the darkly comic short "The Continuing and Lamentable Saga of the Suicide Brothers," a morbid fantasy about a pair of siblings with an extraordinary death wish. Mison divided his time between stage and features in the 2010s, landing a plum role in Laura Wade's controversial drama "Posh" in 2010 and enjoying supporting turns in "One Day" (2011) and as Emily Blunt's military boyfriend in "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen." That same year, he was cast as Rebecca Hall's lover in "Parade's End," an adaptation of Ford Madox Ford's novel starring Benedict Cumberbatch. After playing second leads for much of his screen career, Mison finally vaulted into a starring role as Ichabod Crane, Washington Irving's timid hero in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," for the American fantasy-drama series "Sleepy Hollow".

The imaginative series transported Crane to the modern day where he once again faced his nemesis, the Headless Horseman, who has returned from beyond the grave to commit more mayhem. The critical and ratings success of the series minted Mison as an overnight star in the States, as well as something of a heartthrob for female viewers.