Early life[edit]
Garfield was born in Los Angeles. His mother, Lynn (née Hillman),[1][4] is from Essex, England, and his father, Richard Garfield, is from California.[5][6] Garfield's paternal grandparents were also from the United Kingdom.[7] His parents moved the family from Los Angeles to Britain when he was three years old, and Garfield was raised in Epsom, Surrey,[5][8] in a middle class home.[9] Garfield has described himself as Jewish.[10] His paternal grandparents were from Jewish immigrant families who had moved to London from Eastern Europe (Poland, Russia, and Romania), and the family surname was originally "Garfinkel".[7][11]
Garfield's parents ran a small interior design business; his mother is a teaching assistant at a nursery school, and his father became head coach of the Guildford Swimming Club.[12][13] He has an older brother who is a doctor.[14] Garfield was a gymnast and a swimmer during his early years.[6][12] He had originally intended to study business, but became interested in acting at the age of sixteen.[15] Garfield attended Priory Preparatory School in Banstead and later City of London Freemen's School in nearby Ashtead, before training at the Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London, from which he graduated in 2004.[12][16]
Career