Taron Egerton

• 1. Introduction

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  Taron Egerton learned to play the piano for his role as Elton John in the 2019 film Rocketman. He also sang live in every take, rather than miming to a recording.

  That is a demanding brief for any actor. Egerton, a Welsh performer born in 1989, had to carry the music of a pop legend with his own voice and his own hands.

  How did he get there? What first drew him onto a stage? Why did a spy comedy make him famous, and why did two later blockbusters leave him with regrets? And what happens when an actor collapses during the first night of his West End debut? The answers begin far from any red carpet.

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• 2. Welsh Through and Through

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  Taron Egerton was born in Birkenhead on the 10th of November 1989, yet he calls himself Welsh "through and through." His mother worked in social services. His father ran a bed-and-breakfast near Liverpool, and both parents were Liverpool natives. He has two younger half-sisters. His parents and grandparents were all English, but he grew up fluent in both Welsh and English.

  When Egerton was two, his parents divorced. He moved with his mother to the Welsh island of Anglesey and went to primary school there. The family relocated again to Aberystwyth when he was 12. Leaving behind childhood friends left him lonely.

  He began acting at age 15. He went on to attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating in 2012. Looking back, he explained that acting had been "as much about trying to be social and make friends as it was an interest in acting."

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• 3. Eggsy Arrives

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  In 2012, Egerton stepped onto the stage of the National Theatre in London for a production of The Last of the Haussmans. A year later he performed in No Quarter at the Royal Court Theatre. On television, he appeared in two episodes of the crime drama series Lewis, playing a character named Liam Jay.

  Also in 2013, director Matthew Vaughn cast him in the lead of Kingsman: The Secret Service. The action comedy adapted the comic book The Secret Service by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons.

  In 2014, Egerton played British Army officer Edward Brittain in the biographical drama Testament of Youth. The role earned him a nomination for Best British Newcomer at the BFI London Film Festival.

  Kingsman reached cinemas in 2015 and grossed over $400 million. Reviews described it as "fun, stylish and subversive." Writing for TheWrap, James Rocchi called Egerton "a naturally charismatic presence with smarts behind his smile" as Gary "Eggsy" Unwin, a recruit for an espionage organisation. The part made him famous.

  That same year he also appeared in the crime film Legend.

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• 4. Highs and Misfires

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  The 69th British Academy Film Awards, held in 2016, nominated Egerton for the BAFTA Rising Star Award. He spent that year on two very different projects. In the biopic Eddie the Eagle, he played the ski-jumper of the title. In the animated musical Sing, he voiced Johnny, a passionate gorilla.

  In 2017, he returned as Eggsy for Kingsman: The Golden Circle. Critics gave the sequel a mixed response.

  The following year brought two films that did not work out. Billionaire Boys Club was a crime drama, and Robin Hood was an action-adventure in which Egerton played the title character. Both failed with critics and at the box office.

  Egerton was candid about why he took them. He attributed his involvement in both to monetary reasons. Of Robin Hood, he said it was not the film he had signed up to make and that it had "lost its vision."

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• 5. Becoming Elton John

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  Critics in 2019 filled their reviews of Rocketman with praise for its star. Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post wrote that Egerton "exerts a steadying, singularly charismatic force." Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair called the portrayal "nuanced and emotionally intelligent while still loose, carried with verve and agility."

  The honours followed. Egerton won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. He also received a British Academy Film Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role. A Grammy Award nomination for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media recognised his work on the music.

  The soundtrack album came out on the 24th of May 2019, on the labels Virgin EMI and Interscope. It reached number five in the United Kingdom and earned a Gold certification from the BPI.

  The partnership with John carried beyond the film. Egerton narrated the audiobook of John's autobiography, Me. The two men performed on stage together several times. They also share a music video for the song "(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again."

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• 6. Voice and Stage

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  A gentle, round creature called Moomintroll speaks with Egerton's voice in the animated series Moominvalley, which ran in 2019 and 2020. In 2019 he also voiced Rian in the fantasy series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. The year before, he had voiced El-Ahrairah in the Watership Down miniseries. In 2020, he took the part of John Constantine in an audio series of The Sandman.

  In 2021, he returned to the gorilla Johnny for Sing 2.

  March 2022 brought his West End debut, in the play Cock by Mike Bartlett. Marianne Elliott directed the production at the Ambassadors Theatre. Egerton fainted on stage during the first night of performances. Later that month he tested positive for COVID-19. In April he left the production, citing "personal reasons."

  The play drew mixed reviews, though Egerton's performance won praise. The Guardian's Arifa Akbar wrote that he "is especially affecting in his romantic desperation."

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• 7. True Stories and Streaming

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  Jimmy Keene was a real American drug dealer, and Egerton both played him and served as an executive producer on Black Bird. The miniseries adapts Keene's memoir, In with the Devil, and premiered on Apple TV+ in 2022. Saloni Gajjar of The A.V. Club wrote that Egerton "aces Jimmy's duality while switching from being overtly confident to silently breaking down." The performance brought a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.

  In 2023, Egerton played entrepreneur Henk Rogers in Tetris, a biographical film about the video game of the same name. It also appeared on Apple TV+, and he again worked as an executive producer. Lovia Gyarke of The Hollywood Reporter praised the "earnest goofiness" of his Rogers.

  In the 2024 Netflix thriller Carry-On, Egerton played a TSA agent blackmailed by a terrorist. He called it a rare chance to lead a film aimed at a wide audience. Nick Schager of The Daily Beast wrote that he "exudes the right mix of stuck-in-a-rut defeatism and harried determination to hold the film together." On Netflix, the film became the fifth-most-watched English-language film of all time.

  In 2025, he starred in the Apple TV+ miniseries Smoke and in the crime thriller She Rides Shotgun.

  A dark comedy thriller with English actress Jessica Henwick is scheduled for 2027. Egerton plays a man who finds himself stalked by women after he "masters the disguise of being the perfect man." Its first teaser was shown at CinemaCon 2026, and IndieWire called it "the best thing we saw" at the event.

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• 8. Off Screen

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  British GQ named Egerton one of the 50 best-dressed British men in both 2015 and 2016.

  He lives in West London and describes himself as coming from a working-class background.

  Speculation about his sexuality led Egerton to speak plainly. He said it is "a joy to support" his gay friends, though he is not himself gay. As a teenager, however, he questioned whether he was gay. He recalled feeling "very panicked and upset about how I would be perceived."

  One of his causes is personal. He lost a grandmother to motor neurone disease, and he is now an ambassador for the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

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