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Tom Welling was born on the 26th of April 1977, in Putnam Valley, New York. Tom lived in Wisconsin until third grade when he moved to Hockessin, Delaware; Tom lived in Delaware until his freshman year then moved to Okemos, Michigan with his family.
While at school in Delaware Tom participated in several school plays and pageants until sixth grade. In high school he was a jock, playing basketball, (which he still, plays if he has a chance) a little bit of baseball and soccer.
As he was never really studious, Tom didn’t do any better than fair in high school and decided not to go to college. Instead he became a construction worker while continuing to live at home with his parents and spending time with friends.
In spring 1997 Tom and ten of his friends went on holiday in Nantucket. While at a bar he was approached by an Abercrombie & Fitch catalog shoot scout working for photographer, Bruce Weber.
Tom returned to consider the offer and decided to head to Lake George, New York where the shoot would take place; it was the start of a new career, earning Tom a few thousand dollars in the process.
Tom moved from Michigan to Manhattan and modeled regularly for the next two years working for New York Model Management.
Throughout this time Tom joined Louisa Models, taking assignments from their offices in Munich and Hamburg and modeled for them in Italy, Germany and Spain.
During his time working in Miami, Florida, in 1998, Tom met his wife to be, Jamie White in a café. Jamie and he had already seen each other a few times previously.
Even though he was fairly successful Tom didn’t feel comfortable in the modeling world and he decided to pursue an acting career instead. He moved to Los Angeles, California in January 2000 and gave himself one year to decide if acting would be a better career.
While auditioning numerous roles, Tom continued to model for a few months with LA models and Wilhelmina Models.
Tom soon realized that he found the auditioning process enjoyable. His first acting jobs included commercials for 7 Up, Maxx, and Verizon as well as a role in Angela Via’s music video for ‘Picture Perfect’ in March 2000. Tom’s breakthrough role came towards the end of 2000 with a part in the drama series ‘Judging Amy’. The role of karate instructor Rob Meltzer, Amy’s much younger love interest was only intended to recur in three episodes, but the storyline was successful and Tom was asked back to do three more episodes. In early 2001 he had a role on the series Special Unit 2, playing Male Victim #1. He also made an appearance in the pilot of the series Undeclared in September 2001 as a frat boy before landing the role of Clark Kent on Smallville.
Tom turned down the role twice, thinking that it would be lame. But after auditioning hundreds of other men the casting directors were so sure that Tom was perfect for the role they called him one last time, he relented and finally took the audition. He loved it. On his way home from his final audition Tom stopped at a gas station to call his agent on a pay phone. He was stunned when his agent told him that he had just received a phone call, and that Tom had won the role. Tom was so thrilled to have got the role he stood screaming at the side of the road.
After a successful year in the acting business, Tom decided to take acting classes with the world-renowned Cameron Thor Studios in Los Angeles as well as taking private lessons.
During his first year on Smallville, Tom stayed in hotels in Vancouver during the week while filming and went home to Los Angeles during breaks from filming to be with his then fiancée, Jamie and their dogs.
He and Jamie got married on July 5th, 2002, at Martha’s Vineyard, in a private ceremony attended by close friends and family. Also in attendance were Smallville co-stars Kristin Kreuk and Michael Rosenbaum. Michael performed a special remake of the Van Morrison hit ‘Brown Eyed Girl’.
After their wedding Tom and Jamie moved from Los Angeles to Vancouver where, the shooting of Smallville was to take place in late July. Shooting of Smallville finished in April 2003. Tom’s summer was scheduled to be a hectic one. From late April to mid June Tom filmed his role of Charlie Baker in the remake of Cheaper by the Dozen.
At a press conference for the movie held in December, Tom said that having been a fan since childhood, he accepted the role for three reasons: Steve Martin; Steve Martin and Steve Martin. During filming of the movie in Santa Rosa, California, he and Steve became quite close and quite often played basketball together.
In anticipation of the US release of Cheaper by the Dozen on December 25th, Tom appeared at the world premiere of the movie at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on December 14th, 2003 accompanied by Jamie, several family members and the cast of the movie. The movie was a worldwide box office hit, climbing to number two in the US charts and number one in the United Kingdom.
During his time off, Tom enjoys spending time with his friends and family, as well as playing basketball, reading, running, skiing, and playing golf.