Thomas Mann (actor)

Thomas Randall Mann, Jr. (born September 27, 1991) is an American actor. He is known for his roles in the films Project X (2012), Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013), Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015), and Kong: Skull Island (2017).

Personal life
Mann was born in Portland, Oregon, and grew up in Dallas, Texas. His father is a construction project manager. Mann attended Plano East Senior High School briefly before moving to California at the age of 17 to pursue acting.

Early work
In 2009, Mann made his acting debut on the Nickelodeon sitcom television series iCarly portraying the role of Jeffrey. Later in the year, Mann appeared in The Middle portraying the role of Brendan Nichols.

In 2010, Mann was cast as the protagonist in the comedy film Project X. Mann was told he could not audition for Project X because producers only wished to cast people without acting credits; Mann was ultimately given the role after auditioning seven times. The film centers on Mann's character, Thomas Kub, who throws a house party for his birthday that becomes totally out of hand. Filming began in June that same year in Los Angeles, California on a $12 million budget. A planned sequel was in development in 2012. In March 2012, Mann was in final negotiations to star in a film adaptation of the 2006 novel King Dork. It was optioned in November 2006 by Gary Sanchez Productions, a joint production company founded by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. The same year, Mann appeared in the film Fun Size alongside Victoria Justice portraying the role of Roosevelt. The film was released in the United States on October 26, 2012, and was both a box office bomb and a critical flop. In 2013, Mann appeared in Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters portraying the role of Ben. The film was released in the United States on January 25, 2013. The same year, Mann appeared in Beautiful Creatures, a film adaption of the book with the same name. Mann appeared alongside Viola Davis and Emma Thompson, portraying the role of Link. The film was released on February 14, 2013 and grossed $60 million worldwide against a budget of $60 million. Mann later appeared in As Cool As I Am alongside Sarah Bolger and James Marsden. The film was released on June 21, 2013 by IFC Films.

Breakthrough: 2015–present
In 2015, Mann starred in the film adaptation of Jesse Andrews' novel, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, which premiered on January 25, 2015 at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. The film was acquired by Fox Searchlight for $12 million, the most amount of money paid for a film at the festival, and was released on June 12, 2015 in the United States. The same year, Mann appeared in The Stanford Prison Experiment, which also premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival; Mann portrayed the role of Prisoner 416. The film began a limited release on July 17, 2015, by IFC Films. Mann also appeared in Barely Lethal; the film, which starred Sophie Turner and Hailee Steinfeld, was released on May 29, 2015 in a limited release and through video on demand by DirecTV Cinema and A24. Also that year, he starred as Tobias Hammell in the drama The Preppie Connection. The film is about Mann's character, a student at a private school, using connections to start a drug trafficking network at the school.

In 2016, he starred as Matt in Some Freaks, a teen romance, Blood Father, opposite William H. Macy and Mel Gibson, and the drama Brain on Fire, alongside Chloë Grace Moretz and Jenny Slate.

In 2017, Mann played Reg Slivko in the fantasy action film Kong: Skull Island, and appeared alongside Bella Thorne in the Amityville: The Awakening. After three years of delays, the film was released for free on Google Play in 2017. The same year, he appeared in the acclaimed Fargo episode "The Law of Non-Contradiction".

In 2019, Mann played Ted Hinton in John Lee Hancock's drama film The Highwaymen, which was released on Netflix in March of the same year.