Thomas James Ridgewell (born 27 June 1990), known online as TomSka, is a British filmmaker, actor, content creator, and vlogger. He is known for writing, directing, producing, and starring in his

live-action Live action (or 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 film. Live-action is used to define film, video ...

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

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

videos and animated

web-series A web series (also known as a web show) is a series of scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet, which first emerged in the late 1990s and became more prominent in the early 2000s. A single i ...

such as ''asdfmovie'' ( ), ''

Eddsworld ''Eddsworld'' (capitalized as ''EDDSWORLD'' in the official title design) is a British Flash-animated web series created by Edd Gould. Since premiering on 20 December 2004, the series has been published through Newgrounds, DeviantArt, YouTube ...

'' and ''Crash Zoom''. , his

channel has over 7.13 million subscribers, and his videos have garnered over 1.9 billion views.

Early life and education

Thomas James Ridgewell was born on 27 June 1990 in Essex, England. As a child, Ridgewell made

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

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 friend

Edd Gould Edward Duncan Ernest Gould, (28 October 1988 – 25 March 2012) was a British animator, artist, writer, director, and voice actor. He was best known for creating ''Eddsworld'', a media franchise consisting of flash animations and web comics f ...

's ''

''. Ridgewell graduated from the

University of Lincoln , mottoeng = Freedom through wisdom , established = 1861 – Hull School of Art1905 – Endsleigh College1976 – Hull College1992 – University of Humberside1996 – University of Lincolnshire and Humberside2001 � ...

where he studied Media Production, and whilst studying created a series of unofficial advertisements for the university which received millions of views and were also featured on the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

Career

He has appeared as a guest on the BBC's ''

The One Show ''The One Show'' is a British television magazine and chat show programme. Broadcast live on BBC One weeknights at 7:00 pm, it features topical stories and studio guests. It is currently co-hosted by Alex Jones, Jermaine Jenas, and Ronan K ...

'' and created short films for

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...

. In October 2007, Ridgewell created a secondary channel called DarkSquidge (currently known as TomSka & Friends). , the channel has over 1.38 million subscribers and over 191 million views. While his main channel consists of sketch comedy and animations, The "TomSka & Friends" channel shows behind-the-scenes footage of TomSka-related projects and videos, as well as

vlog A video blog or video log, sometimes shortened to vlog (), is a form of blog for which the medium is video. Vlog entries often combine embedded video (or a video link) with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded in ...

ging. Ridgewell also engages in social commentary, covering topics like mental health, sexual health, and body positivity. From April 2016 to February 2018, he uploaded weekly vlogs to the channel in a series named ''Last Week''. In 2008, Ridgewell released the first episode of ''asdfmovie'', an animated

series featuring short clips of minimalist characters in

surreal Surreal may refer to: *Anything related to or characteristic of Surrealism, a movement in philosophy and art * "Surreal" (song), a 2000 song by Ayumi Hamasaki * ''Surreal'' (album), an album by Man Raze *Surreal humour, a common aspect of humor ...

and occasionally darkly humorous situations. The "asdf" part of the name originates from the first four characters of the second row of letters on the "

QWERTY QWERTY () is a keyboard layout for Latin-script alphabets. The name comes from the order of the first six Computer keyboard keys#Types, keys on the top left letter row of the keyboard ( ). The QWERTY design is based on a layout created f ...

keyboard layout A keyboard layout is any specific physical, visual or functional arrangement of the keys, legends, or key-meaning associations (respectively) of a computer keyboard, mobile phone, or other computer-controlled typographic keyboard. is the actua ...

. The song " Beep Beep I'm a Sheep" by Canadian musician LilDeuceDeuce with vocals by Ridgewell and Gabriel Brown, released alongside ''asdfmovie10'', 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 ''Just Dance 2018'' is a 2017 dance rhythm game developed and published by Ubisoft. It was unveiled on June 12, 2017, during its E3 press conference as the ninth main installment of the series, and was released in October 2017 for PlayStation 3, ...

''. A book based on the ''asdfmovie'' series, titled ''Art is Dead: the asdf book'', was written by Ridgewell, illustrated by Matt Ley and published by Little Brown on 22 October 2015. A second book titled ''Sam Kills Christmas'', written by Ridgewell and Eddie Bowley with illustrations by Dorina Herdewijn, was released on 8 November 2018. In 2012, Ridgewell founded the media production company TurboPunch Ltd., located in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. He currently works there alongside co-writer Eddie Bowley and video editor Elliot Gough. Ridgewell also became the producer of ''

'' after the show's creator,

, died of

leukaemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in 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. 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 '' Comedy Week'' as a guest host for its ''Geek Week'' series in August. In 2014, Ridgewell, in collaboration with video game developer Pixel Spill Studios, created the game ''KatataK'', a side-scrolling

shoot 'em up Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of chara ...

for

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

and Android devices. In September 2014, the BBC announced Ridgewell would appear as a guest presenter on the '' Dan and Phil Show'' on

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

. 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 broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, curre ...

. 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 200 million views. In 2019, Ridgewell developed a

card game A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games (such as poker). A small number of card ...

based on ''asdfmovie'' in collaboration with Big Potato Games called ''Muffin Time: The Random Card Game''. He raised over £1,000,000 for the game on

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

Personal life

Ridgewell's twin sister, Amelia, died prenatally after their mother sustained injuries in a car accident. He was raised a

Jehovah's Witness Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million adherents involved in ev ...

but no longer practices this faith. Despite this, he has expressed belief in a higher power. Though not primarily a musician by trade, Ridgewell has played bass guitar in multiple videos, including "Guitar Warfare" and "Mine Turtle" as a featured artist with LilDeuceDeuce. 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 previous general election in 2015; it was the first since 1992 to be held on a day that did not coincide with any local elections. The governing ...

and expressed his opposition to both

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...

and the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

Books

* ''Art Is Dead: the asdf book'' (2015, Little Brown Book Group, ) * ''Sam Kills Christmas'' (2018, Little Brown Book Group, )

Notes

References

{{Authority control 1990 births Alumni of the University of Lincoln British Internet celebrities British video bloggers English male web series actors English video bloggers English YouTubers Former Jehovah's Witnesses Living people Male bloggers People from Essex Surreal comedy Black comedy British agnostics English agnostics