Thomas James Ridgewell (born 27 June 1990), known online as TomSka, is an English

YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...

, filmmaker, vlogger, comedian, actor, musician, and former animator. He is known for writing, directing, producing, and starring in his

live-action Live action is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live action with animation to create a live-action animated feature film. Live action is used to define film, video games or ...

sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches" or, "skits", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. While the form developed and became popular in ...

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

videos and animated

web series A web series (also known as webseries, short-form series, and web show) is a series of short scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet (i.e. World Wide Web), which first emerged in the late 1 ...

such as ''Asdfmovie'' ( ), ''Crash Zoom'', and ''

Eddsworld ''Eddsworld'' is a British Flash-animated web series created by Edd Gould. Since its premiere on 21 December 2004, the series has been published through Newgrounds, DeviantArt, YouTube, Albino Blacksheep, Tumblr, SheezyArt, and an official ...

'' where he both provided the voice and inspired the character of Tom and served as showrunner from 2012 to 2016. , his

channel has over 7.39 million subscribers, and his videos have garnered over 2.1 billion views.

Early life and education

Thomas James Ridgewell was born on 27 June 1990 in

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. His twin sister Amelia died prenatally after Ridgewell's mother was injured in a car accident. He was raised as a

Jehovah's Witness Jehovah's Witnesses is a Christian denomination that is an outgrowth of the Bible Student movement founded by Charles Taze Russell in the nineteenth century. The denomination is nontrinitarian, millenarian, and restorationist. Russell co- ...

, in

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

until age 4 and later

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

. As a child, Ridgewell made

short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

s using his parents' video camera. Shortly after YouTube was established, Ridgewell created CakeBomb, a website where he posted his projects, including his animated web series ''Asdfmovie'' and his late friend

Edd Gould Edward Duncan Ernest "Edd" Gould (28 October 1988 – 25 March 2012) was a British animator, artist, and voice actor. He created ''Eddsworld'', a media franchise consisting of flash animations and web comics featuring fictionalised versions ...

's ''

''. Ridgewell graduated from the

University of Lincoln The University of Lincoln is a public university, public research university in Lincoln, England, Lincoln, England, with origins dating back to 1861. It gained university status in 1992 and its present name in 2001. The main campus is in the hea ...

, where he studied Media Production having previously studied at

Long Road Sixth Form College Long Road Sixth Form College (LRSFC) is a state co-educational sixth form college in Cambridge, England. It is on Long Road, from which it draws its name, and is next to the Cambridge Bio-Medical Campus which encompasses Addenbrooke's Hospital ...

in Cambridge, and whilst studying created a series of unofficial advertisements for the university, which received millions of views and were also featured on the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Career

As a professional YouTuber, Ridgewell earns money from revenue from his videos on the website. Ridgewell engages in social commentary through his YouTube channel, covering topics such as mental health and personal relationships. From April 2016 to February 2018, he uploaded weekly vlogs to his second channel, DarkSquidge, now known as TomSka & Friends, in a series named ''Last Week''. In 2012, Ridgewell founded the media production company TurboPunch Ltd., located in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. He currently works there alongside co-writer Eddie Bowley. Ridgewell also became the producer of ''

'' after the show's creator,

, died of

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

. He left the series in 2016, relinquishing the show to animator Matt Hargreaves. Tomska at MCM Comic Con in London 2013

In February 2013, Ridgewell was featured on the cover of

Wired UK ''Wired UK'' is a bimonthly magazine that reports on the effects of science and technology. It covers a broad range of topics including design, architecture, culture, the economy, politics and philosophy. Owned by Condé Nast Publications, it is ...

as part of a feature titled "How YouTube Reinvented the Entertainment Business". In May 2013, he was featured in YouTube's first and only '' Comedy Week'' as a guest host for its ''Geek Week'' series in August. In 2016, Ridgewell filmed several sketches with the BBC for a potential sketch show on

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...

. A book titled ''Sam Kills Christmas'', written by Ridgewell and Eddie Bowley with illustrations by Dorina Herdewijn, was released on 8 November 2018.

''Asdfmovie''

In 2008, Ridgewell released the first episode of ''Asdfmovie'', an animated

series featuring short clips of minimalist characters in surreal and occasionally

darkly humorous Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

situations. In October 2015, Ridgewell released his book based on the ''Asdfmovie'' series, ''Art is Dead: the asdf book'', illustrated by Matt Ley and published by Little Brown 5. In 2017, the song "Beep Beep I'm a Sheep" by Canadian musician LilDeuceDeuce, with vocals by Ridgewell and Gabriel Brown, was featured in the dance

rhythm game Rhythm game or rhythm action is a genre of music-themed action video game that challenges a player's sense of rhythm. Games in the genre typically focus on dance or the simulated performance of musical instruments, and require players to pres ...

'' Just Dance 2018''. In May 2018, Ridgewell uploaded "The Muffin Song", a spin-off song of his ''Asdfmovie'' series, in collaboration with Schmoyoho. , the video has garnered over 263 million views. In 2019, Ridgewell developed a

card game A card game is any game that uses playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, whether the cards are of a traditional design or specifically created for the game (proprietary). Countless card games exist, including famil ...

based on ''Asdfmovie'' in collaboration with

Big Potato Games Big or BIG may refer to: * Big, of great size or degree Film and television * ''Big'' (film), a 1988 fantasy-comedy film starring Tom Hanks * ''Big'', a 2023 Taiwanese children's film starring Van Fan and Chie Tanaka * ''Big!'', a Discovery ...

called ''Muffin Time: The Random Card Game''. He raised over £1,000,000 for the game on

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

. A second game, ''Don't Press That Mine Turtle'', raised over £300,000 on Kickstarter.

Personal life

He was raised a

but no longer practices this faith. Despite this, he has expressed belief in a higher power. Ridgewell has been open about his struggles with

grief Grief is the response to the loss of something deemed important, particularly to the death of a person to whom or animal to which a Human bonding, bond or affection was formed. Although conventionally focused on the emotional response to loss, ...

, following the death of

in 2012, and was diagnosed with depression in 2013. He endorsed the Labour Party in the

2017 United Kingdom general election The 2017 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 8 June 2017, two years after the 2015 United Kingdom general election, previous general election in 2015; it was the first since 1992 United Kingdom general election, 1992 to be held ...

and expressed his opposition to both

Brexit Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...

and the Conservative Party. In 2021, he was diagnosed with

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity, and emotional dysregulation that are excessive and pervasive, impairing in multiple con ...

. On 26 December 2023, Charlie Belle, his long-term partner, announced via Instagram that they had become engaged. Ridgewell later revealed he had proposed on

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

Filmography

Web series

Short films

Feature films

Video games

Bibliography

* * * *

Notes

References

External links

* {{Newgrounds 1990 births Alumni of the University of Lincoln Black comedy web series British agnostics British comedians British film people British Internet celebrities British male actors British male bloggers English agnostics English film people English male web series actors English video bloggers Film people from London Former Jehovah's Witnesses Living people Comedians from London Comedians from Suffolk People with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder Surreal comedy Surreal comedy web series YouTube channels launched in 2006 English male comedians Male actors from London Male actors from Suffolk YouTubers from London YouTubers from Suffolk YouTubers with disabilities