Biography
New Zealand actor and writer Thomas Rimmer was born in Reading, Berkshire, England to New Zealand Engineer Adrian Rimmer and his wife Lorretta, both of whom were raised in Tauranga, New Zealand, but had spent time traveling around France and the UK after their marriage in 1977, before eventually living in England for a brief period. They moved back to New Zealand with their new baby boy at the end of 1980 when Rimmer was only a few months old. Rimmer also has two younger sisters named Amanda and Phoebe. As a child, Rimmer attended two primary schools and an intermediate school (Bethlehem, Welcome Bay and Tauranga Intermediate) before attending the local high school, Tauranga Boys' College, from 1994 to 1998. While there, he discovered acting and writing (mainly poetry) and took part in the school's drama classes, theatre sports team and the school plays, which were in collaboration with Tauranga Girls' College. He was very interested in and skilled at comedy, and although he was influenced by great British comedy actors such as Rowan Atkinson and the actors from Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969), he became particularly influenced by the work of Jim Carrey around this time, as Carrey had become incredibly popular internationally, and Rimmer became a fan of his over-the-top slapstick style and his ability to contort his face and alter his voice to create a range of characters. Rimmer makes no secret of Carrey's huge influence on him. Rimmer left high school at the end of 1998. In early 2000, after a year of doing various jobs including working in a mussel factory and working at his father's friend's office products store, he moved to Wellington, New Zealand's capital city, to pursue a career in acting. Rimmer made his professional debut in 2003 playing the bumbling, Spanish waiter Manuel, in a largely improvised theatrical production based on the classic British comedy, _Fawlty Towers (1975-1979)_. He later played Baldrick in another classic British comedy, "Blackadder" (based on Blackadder II (1986)), for the same company. Rimmer soon began acting in a range of theatre productions including John Whiting's "The Devils", New Zealand comedy "Ladies Night" (written by Anthony McCarten and Stephen Sinclair), and William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream". He also appeared on New Zealand TV shows including Facelift (2004) and The Investigator (2009-2012) before he was given the role of Wee Willy in Danny Mulheron's feature film debut, the comedy-horror Fresh Meat (2012). He was then given a lead role in Bill Hunt's feature film debut Fundamental (2012), while at the same time playing a Goblin in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012). Rimmer's debut as a theatre writer is the black comedy "Writer's Block", a one-man play based on his own experiences with insomnia and depression, and it was first staged in Wellington, New Zealand in 2011. Rimmer not only wrote it but also performed it and produced it. The play is heavily influenced by Rimmer's favorite writer, William Shakespeare. In January 2013 Rimmer left Wellington and moved to New Zealand's largest city, Auckland.
