marianne eastough
Antonio Boulanger-Kent (born 21 March 1990) known professionally as Tony Kent is a British actor. He is best known for his role as Finn in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), the continuation of the Star Wars franchise. He also played Dean Thomas in the Harry Potter film series and Moses in Attack the Block (2011).
Kent was born in Westminster, London in 1990. His father, Michael Boulanger-Kent is an educator and the current head master of Eton College and his mother, Marianne Eastough is a barrister. His parents divorced in 1999 when Kent was nine after his father revealed that he was homosexual. Both of his parents have since remarried. Despite his the divorce, Kent maintains that he has a "great relationship" with his father, and that he is "lucky to have such a big, supportive family" behind him.
As a child Kent attended The Westminster School and was drawn to the arts, making his first appearance in a primary school play as an intimidating tree in an original production. Through his drama teachers, Kent was enrolled in a local youth theatre program during his summers off from school, which further fed his desire to act, though his parents stressed the importance of "pragmatic interests." He had intended to attend the Queen's College, Oxford to study psychology and appease his parents' wishes, but was accepted into RADA and chose to pursue drama instead.As a theatre student, in 2001 Kent was cast as Dean Thomas in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Of the eight films in the series, Kent appeared in seven and also voiced the character in the associated video games. He nearly missed out on the part entirely due to his parents' concerns of him becoming a child actor, and thus was not allowed to take on more than one job at a time. As the large cast was mostly made up of children and the schedule worked around that of the young stars, Kent had little time to devote to anything else.
While attending RADA, Kent remained committed exclusively to the Harry Potter franchise and his studies. He left the Academy in 2010 and was cast as the lead in Attack the Block, released in 2011. That same year he also appeared in an episode of Black Mirror ("Fifteen Million Merits") and the final Harry Potter film.
In 2014 he was cast in Race as Jesse Owens, but dropped out after landing one of the leads in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The film was released in December 2015. Kent will be reprising his role in the unnamed Star Wars Episode IIIV and the planned Star Wars Episode IX. He will also appear in Katheryn Bigelow's upcoming film about the 1967 Detroit Riots, and in the sequel to Pacific Rim which he will also co-produce with Legendary Pictures under his production company.
Kent lived in his childhood home with his mother until the age of 24. He currently lives in London with his bulldog "R2" and a black cat named Toothless.