Tom Lister

Tom Lister (born 21st June 1978 in Ingleton, North Yorkshire) is an English actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Carl King on the British soap opera Emmerdale.

Background
Born as Thomas Brown, he discovered another Tom Brown was already in the profession and so decided to take his mother's maiden name. The son of Tom and Jean Brown, founders of Brown and Whitaker builders based in Ingleton and Bentham, he first got involved in drama at Ingleton Middle School. Tom later moved on to Settle High School where he took the lead in the play, The Local War. He recalls: "I realised I wanted to be an actor after appearing in school productions and was inspired by teachers Pete Eastman, Peter Huby and Keith Reeves." At the same time he was acting in sketches at Ingleton Methodist Church and a visit to the Hollybush Youth Camp with the church's youth group led to two years' travelling the country with the Christian theatre company, Activate. He then attended the Birmingham School of Speech and Drama, graduating in 2001. His accent on Emmerdale is his real accent (North Yorkshire).

Personal life
He is married to a primary school teacher, called Jenny. The couple have two sons, Benjamin Thomas Brown, born in September 2006 and Samuel Harry Brown born in October 2008. He is good friends with two of his on-screen brothers Nick Miles and Matt Healy.

He appeared on All Star Family Fortunes soap special with his onscreen girlfriend Lucy Pargeter and onscreen brother Nick Miles and sister Kelsey-Beth Crossley and brother Jimmy's onscreen girlfriend Nicola Wheeler and beat Coronation Street family the Webster's.

He has worked with Christian-based anti-trafficking organisation Hope for Justice.