TOMLINSON
Louis

• 1. Early life and family
• 2. Early career

Louis William Tomlinson is an English singer and songwriter. He rose to fame as a member of the boy band One Direction. Tomlinson began his career appearing in television dramas before he auditioned on the British music competition series The X Factor in 2010. After being eliminated as a solo performer, he was placed into a group with four other contestants, forming One Direction. One Direction went on to become one of the best-selling boy bands of all time.

Following the group's hiatus in 2016, Tomlinson released "Just Hold On" as a debut solo single in December 2016. It peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart and was certified platinum in the UK. In 2017, Tomlinson released "Back to You" with American singer Bebe Rexha (which was certified platinum in the USA and the UK) and "Miss You". In the same year, he appeared on Debrett's 2017 list of the most influential people in the UK.

In 2018, Tomlinson appeared on the fifteenth series of The X Factor as a judge and a mentor of the "Boys" category. When his mentee Dalton Harris won the competition, Tomlinson became the first former contestant of the show to become the winning mentor. The following year, Tomlinson released the singles "Two of Us", "Kill My Mind", "We Made It", "Don't Let It Break Your Heart" and "Walls". His debut solo album, Walls, was released in January 2020.

Early life and family

Louis William Tomlinson was born in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England to Johannah "Jay" Poulston and Troy Austin, who split up when he was a toddler. He has some Belgian ancestry. He is estranged from his father and later took on his then stepfather Mark Tomlinson's surname. He was raised with four younger half-sisters; Charlotte, Félicité (2000–2019), and twins Phoebe and Daisy from Poulston's marriage to Mark. Later he has two more half siblings, twins Doris and Ernest (born 2014) from Poulston's relationship to Dan Deakin, whom she later married. He also has one paternal half-sister, Georgia.

Tomlinson attended The Hayfield School and later Hall Cross School (now Hall Cross Academy), both located in Doncaster. He failed his first year of A levels at the Hayfield School and ended up going to Hall Cross School and starting his A levels again. He had a number of jobs, including at a Vue cinema and at Doncaster Rovers football stadium as a waiter in the hospitality suites. At Hall Cross, Tomlinson appeared in several musical productions, which gave him a growing sense of ambition and determination. Taking the lead role of Danny Zuko in the Hall Cross musical production of Grease motivated him to audition for The X Factor.

Early career

Tomlinson, along with two of his siblings, had extra roles in Fat Friends. After Fat Friends, he attended an acting school in Barnsley. He had small parts in an ITV drama film If I Had You and BBC's Waterloo Road.

When Tomlinson was 14, he was kicked out of a band and replaced with a new vocalist. Tomlinson has cited this experience as motivation for him to audition for The X Factor.

Tomlinson auditioned for The X Factor in 2009, but failed to progress past the producer's audition. He was determined to return the following year.