Tom Blyth's Transformation From Childhood To The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes
If you've caught the "The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" movie — or even just the trailer — you might be wondering, who is this guy? English actor Tom Blyth plays young Coriolanus Snow in "The Hunger Games" prequel, and he and his shock of yellow hair seem to suddenly be everywhere.
He's dominating the box office, he's charming co-stars Rachel Zegler and Hunter Schaefer, and he's in roughly two thousand thirsty TikTok posts admiring his extremely blue eyes. So what gives? Did they cook this man up in a lab with a lock of Donald Sutherland's original President Snow hair and some extremely blue precious stone?
While that is one good explanation, there's more to Tom Blyth's story here, and it doesn't involve witchcraft or dystopian science — as far as we can tell. Instead, it appears the 28-year-old actor is enjoying the benefits of overnight success 13 years or so into his career. Fact is, Blyth has been a working actor since he was but a wee one — and his hair? It isn't even really blond. Join us as we crack open the books, and dig into Tom Blyth's transformation from childhood to "The Hunger Games."
Family business
Tom Blyth's father, Gavin Blyth, helped give his son a taste for a life in the arts. The elder Blyth was a major force in British soap operas. He worked initially as a journalist, then publicist, then finally as a writing TV producer for long-running British hits such as "Coronation Street" and "Emmerdale."
According to Gavin Blyth's obituary in The Guardian, he was also responsible for fostering some of the landmark storylines on his soaps. Blyth told W Magazine he and his dad would watch tons of movies when they spent time together. Those movie marathons are how young Blyth discovered actors he admired, like Oscar Isaac and Adam Driver. Watching with his dad or just plain watching his dad is how the young Blyth discovered his own calling.
"Through watching him work, I realized it was actually possible to make a job out of these interests," Tom says to W. "And that [entertainment] is a viable way to make a living." Sadly, Gavin Blyth died of lymphoma, at the young age of 41, when Tom was just 15 years old.
Robin Hood
While young Tom Blyth didn't get his acting start on his dad's soap operas, he clearly caught the acting bug young. His mother Charlotte even got him involved in the Nottingham Television Workshop, a renowned program that led to some acting opportunities on the big screen, including young Tom's first feature film role at age 15 in the 2010 "Robin Hood" as a Feral Child.
Sure, the role of Feral Child might not seem like a name-maker, but consider Blyth's top-billed co-stars: Russell Crowe as Robin Hood, Cate Blanchett as Marion, Oscar Isaac as Prince John, and Matthew Macfadyen as the Sheriff of Nottingham are just a few of the stars Blyth rubbed elbows with.
Even playing a small part in this stacked cast must have felt like the start of something big. Plus, Blyth's first-ever film director was Ridley Scott, whose credits are as legendary as they are varied. We can totally see how teen Tom Blyth went absolutely feral for acting after this experience.
Pelican Blood
Young struggling actors don't always get a ton of choice when it comes to the roles they take, but good on Tom Blyth for following up a major action epic like "Robin Hood" with a movie that some have referred to as "Trainspotting" but with more birdwatching.
"Pelican Blood" is an indie, low-budget adaptation of a novel that IMDb bills as "a love story set in the world of obsessive birdwatchers." The movie follows the ups and downs of Nikko, played by Harry Treadaway ("Mr. Mercedes") as he navigates possibly destructive romance, birdwatching, and his own past. Blyth plays Young Nikko.
Though at first blush, "Pelican Blood" looks nothing like Blyth's later work in "The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,", there are more similarities than meet the eye. Both deal with birds, tricky subject matter, obsession, and death. Plus Blyth, Treadaway, and young President Snow all have the same shade of spooky blue eyes. Coincidence? Or an actor's fate, written in the stars?
Short films
The teen years are a tough time to discover you want to be an actor. While there are tons of opportunities to make your mark with your own videos, it might not always be easy to get exposure for them — even in our modern age of endless TikToks. Teenaged Tom Blyth kept at his craft regardless of social media followers, however, and dedicated himself to starring in a bunch of short films.
He played Will in "Fibs," a 2014 short film written and directed by James Sharp about a young woman stuck in a fantasy of love and late adolescence. In 2015, he played Clown in "Fluffy," a short film written and directed by Damien Ebanks that is described on IMDb with the logline, "A clown, his sister, and a hit man cross paths in a story about a stolen sack and a cat called Fluffy."
Finally, the most acclaimed short film Blyth appeared in during these tender years is called "Wash Club." This 2016 suspense short was written and directed by Simon Dymond, and described on FilmShortage.com as "the true story of how an aspiring journalist accidentally becomes ringleader of the secret society he is supposed to be investigating." In it, Blyth plays Doug — the journalist on the cusp of something strange.
Theater roles
We're pretty sure they don't let actors exist in England without doing some form of theater in their youth, and Tom Blyth is no different. He's racked up a bunch of experience treading the boards, and has said in a variety of promotional interviews for "The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" that he'd love to do so again.
According to Blyth's United Agents resume, his most notable theater roles include Orsino in Shakespeare on the Sound's production of "Twelfth Night," Simon in the Panther Creek Arts production of "Hay Fever," and Dr. Brodsky in the Nottingham Playhouse production of "A Clockwork Orange." This list isn't even counting the work Blyth did at Juilliard — and yes, this guy went to Juilliard. Perhaps all the intensity and bonding involved in theater productions helped Blyth when it came to tackling his major film role, years later, as young "Coryo" Snow. It certainly seemed to have helped when he and co-star Rachel Zegler bonded during pre-production.
"Rachel and I started texting and sending voice notes to each other about the characters and our lives trying to connect," Blyth told Vanity Fair. Even after Blyth caught COVID-19 near the start of the shoot, Blyth says, "She would update me every day and tell me how the day had gone. It was a pretty arduous shoot, so it was good to have a partner in crime there to lean on." If that kind of connection doesn't scream theater kid energy, what does?
Juilliard
Going to famed New York drama school Juilliard can be a major turning point for any actor. The school counts Viola Davis, Jessica Chastain, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Robin Williams, Christine Baranski, and Andre Braugher as just a few of its illustrious alumni. It's notoriously difficult to get in, and even more expensive to attend. Sill, earning a place among the stars is a dream for many — and doing so brought the English Tom Blyth over to the United States and gave him new opportunities in a big way.
According to Bilborough College, Blyth's former secondary school, Blyth was one of only nine applicants accepted his year, from a pool of 2,000 applicants. While Blyth did get awarded a nice scholarship, he had to raise additional funds to attend the program. So he took to GoFundMe, and got on a plane.
Years later, he bonded with "Hunger Games" co-star Davis about their time at Juilliard. Blyth tells The Wrap it "was a nutty kind of experience for me because ... she's literally one of the best to ever do it, and we're working together and we've like gone through some of the exact same training." Some of that training, per Blyth's Juilliard resume, is doing tons of theater work — and possibly daydreaming about one day running The Hunger Games.
Scott and Sid
It's one thing to grab a few teeny tiny roles in big movies or a spot at a great drama school, and quite another to start to turn the engine over on a career in the arts. It depends on luck, opportunity, and being ready for both should they happen to come along at the same time. For Tom Blyth, the stars started to really align when he got his first major film role as a young adult in an indie British production in 2018, a movie called "Scott and Sid."
"Scott and Sid" is an offbeat film about two friends trying to fulfill a bucket list against the odds, based on the real lives of Scott and Sid, the film's creators. Blyth plays Scott, and an image of him jumping gleefully in the air as his schoolbag flies out behind him serves as the whimsical film's poster image. Sid (Richard Mason) and Scott both have chaotic home lives, but together focus on "dream chasing" to make their lives better.
The film was shot in Yorkshire, England and its autobiographical edge had a split response among critics upon its release. Still, it provides a showcase for Blyth as a geeky, sensitive type capable of great things — even if the movie never became "the next Billy Elliot" (via Yorkmix.com) as the creators had hoped.
Scars music video
What young actor's resume is complete without at least one confusing and beautifully shot music video? Tom Blyth's entry in this category is "Scars" by Hazey Eyes featuring Yoke Lore. The 2019 video, directed by Simon Dymond (also the director of the short film "Wash Club" starring Blyth) features a couple that's totally in love — when they aren't fighting, that is.
The non-Blyth half of the couple is played by Erin Kellyman, of "Solo: A Star Wars Story" and "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" fame. In the music video, Kellyman and Blyth have a bit of a toxic relationship that ends in literal murder and vampire bites. Ah, to be young and in love.
Blyth's surprise turn towards villainy with vengeance and a plastic bag in the "Scars" music video does hint at his killer film roles to come. Could casting directors for "Hunger Games" have caught this music video? Who knows, but clearly, the odds were ever in Blyth's favor.
Benediction
Blyth's first major role after graduating from Juilliard was as Glen Byam Shaw in the 2021 period drama, "Benediction." The story follows real-life British poet and World War I veteran Siegfried Sassoon (played by both Jack Lowden and Peter Capaldi) throughout many of his romantic relationships after the war. Sassoon was also sent to a psych ward for being verbally outspoken against war, and the movie is one beautiful bummer.
Blyth plays Glen Byam Shaw in the film, a kind English actor who spends some time with Sassoon in a sort of tortured love triangle. It's a small but powerful role, in a film that many consider to be one of the best works by writer/director Terence Davies. As Davies died in 2023, "Benediction" is also his last film.
One line Blyth says in the film — and that shows up in the trailer — also sounds like something plucked right out of young President Snow's mouth. "Purity is like virginity," Blyth's Shaw says. "Soon as you touch it, it becomes corrupt."
The Gilded Age
Tom Blyth's resume is full of small yet significant roles. Things really start to gather steam for him after graduating from Julliard, of course. How fitting that the Brit who moved to New York also got to time travel back to Gilded Age New York for his first big TV role, as an old-timey investment banker in a 2022 episode of "The Gilded Age."
The dishy period drama from "Downton Abbey" scribe Julian Fellowes has garnered many fans of its "Real Housewives"-style gossipy, social-climbing energy. The most cutthroat couple on the show are the glamorous and gut-punchingly ambitious Russells. Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) and George Russell (Morgan Spector) are clearly modeled after the real-life Vanderbilt family, and share their unspeakable wealth. They're not so keen to share their family bonds, however. While Blyth only stars in one episode, it's a memorable one that pairs him up with George Russell.
Blyth plays Archie Baldwin, a character who wishes to ask for George's daughter Gladys's (Taissa Farmiga) hand in marriage. George, not loving the idea of such a small-fry and likely loveless match, decides to settle the matter by offering to promote Archie — as long as Archie promises to never talk to his daughter again. Archie almost immediately sells out his lady love for a chance to move up at her father's company. It's a great guest role that initially showcases Blyth's ability to act tenderly — and his ability to break a girl's heart by stabbing her in the back.
Billy the Kid
It may come as a surprise that a young English actor working since childhood would get his break as an American kid. Billy the Kid, to be exact. Blyth plays the legendary gunslinger in two seasons (so far) of the Epix/MGM+ series from "Vikings" creator Michael Hirst.
The show debuted in 2022, and when the role came in Blyth was living a frontier-lite life in a cabin in upstate New York. He told Town & Country Magazine that he pretty much immediately sought out another upstate friend with a ranch to learn how to ride horses before departing for Canada for shooting. Billy marks Blyth's first leading man role in movies or TV, and "Billy the Kid" has a lot of muscle behind it — and a lot of meat on the storytelling bones.
"It's an immigration story, first and foremost," Blyth tells Town & Country, admiring how Billy's family came from Ireland to the States in pursuit of an American Dream that never quite became a reality. Still, Blyth says that Billy "was a survivor, but was fearless in his morals. He's such an enigmatic character. I could go on for days." If Billy the Kid is Blyth's take on an outlaw defender of both the innocent and his own interests, maybe his next major role is a strange reflection of that vigilante energy. In fact, if Billy is a fighter who runs hot — Coriolanus Snow is one who might just run cold.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
"Songbirds and Snakes" takes place 63 years before the events of the previous books and movies that featured Katniss Everdeen. In those stories, Katniss battled other teenagers for her life, but ultimately faced off against an unspeakably evil and incredibly genteel tyrant who ruled both the games and the country of Panem: President Snow. The elder Snow, played by Donald Sutherland, was ruthless in his pursuit of total control.
So committed was he to this goal that he would drink the same poison he'd give to his enemies, then chase it with the antidote, covering up the smell of his eternally bleeding mouth wounds up with specially-bred genetically modified roses. President Snow is about commitment — to himself and his causes, anyway. Blyth plays the much younger version of that man, a boy on the precipice of becoming an unstoppable tyrant — but who is presented with another path. What a task Blyth has of making viewers believe Snow could go either way.
Blyth proves he's up to the task — and from his career so far, we might just have another versatile British actor in the vein of Tom Hiddleston on our hands. In any event, Blyth seems to have a good head on his shoulders, and famous co-stars in his corner. He told Entertainment Weekly that Peter Dinklage's advice to him was, "”This is going to be a big film. There's going to be a lot of noise. Just focus on the work [and] enjoy it.'" Sounds very smart, coming from an actor with an acclaimed career who makes it his business to know things.