Joe Thomas (actor)

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Joseph "Joe" Thomas (born 28 October 1983) is an English actor. He is best known for playing Simon Cooper in the E4 sitcom The Inbetweeners[1] and Kingsley Owen in the Channel 4 comedy-drama series Fresh Meat.

Thomas has three younger brothers. He attended King Edward VI Grammar School in Chelmsford as a teenager before proceeding to Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he studied History. At Cambridge, Thomas was a member of the Footlights, alongside his Inbetweeners co-star Simon Bird. Bird and Thomas served as the President and the Secretary of the Footlights, respectively, in 2005–2006. Of his education, he states, "I never really recovered from the fact that the lecturers weren't paid to be nice to me. Or that the carrot-and-stick thing that happened at school no longer occurred. If you do quite well, nobody's that bothered; and if you really fuck up, nobody's that bothered. It has to be from you and I was easily distracted". Nevertheless, Thomas graduated with a 2:1 degree in History in 2006.

After graduating with a degree, Thomas briefly shared a flat with Bird and fellow Pembroke graduate and Footlights alumnus Jonny Sweet.

Early acting career

After entering the performing arts via the Footlights, Thomas performed with fellow University of Cambridge students at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in a production of All's Well That Ends Well directed by author Duncan Barrett.

After graduating from university, Thomas took to acting professionally, and his parents have accepted and are proud of his choice of career.

Thomas is in a double act along with Sweet, and they have performed their show, The Jonny and Joe Show, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Television career

Thomas' big break in television was his role as Simon Cooper in The Inbetweeners and its feature film The Inbetweeners Movie. Together with Bird and writing partner Sweet, they wrote Chickens, a satirical sketch about three conscientious objectors during World War I, which was a part of a proposed series, Comedy Showcase. It debuted in September 2011 and a full series was commissioned.

Following this, Thomas starred in the student sitcom Fresh Meat as Kingsley Owen and has played a maths teacher in the first episode of the second series of Threesome.

Thomas moved in with Inbetweeners co-star Hannah Tointon in 2012, after they met earlier working on the show. The couple got engaged in 2017.

Film

Television