Orlando Bloom's Real Name: Orlando Jonathan Blanchard Copeland Bloom

Quick answer: Orlando Bloom's full birth name is Orlando Jonathan Blanchard Copeland Bloom, according to a Library of Congress name record. A second LOC citation gives the shorter Orlando Jonathan Blanchard Bloom. He was born January 13, 1977, in Canterbury, Kent, England, and is best known as Legolas in The Lord of the Rings and Will Turner in Pirates of the Caribbean (LOC; Biography.com).

Real name and early life

Biography.com says Bloom was born in Canterbury to Sonia and Harry Bloom and grew up there with his sister, Samantha. Harry Bloom, a writer who opposed South Africa's apartheid system, died when Orlando was four. BBC America says Bloom grew up believing Harry was his biological father. When he was 13, his mother told him his biological father was Colin Stone, a family friend. His surname comes from Harry Bloom, his mother's husband.

BBC America reports that he was diagnosed with dyslexia at seven. Encouraged by his mother to pursue the arts, he did regional theater as a boy. At 16 he moved to London to join the National Youth Theatre, then trained at the British American Drama Academy and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. While at Guildhall he fell three stories and broke his back. In a post quoted by BBC America, he later credited the National Health Service with saving his life.

Career highlights

Bloom made his film debut in the Oscar Wilde biopic Wilde (1997). Days before graduating from Guildhall, he was cast as the elf Legolas in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, starting with The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). He also appeared in Black Hawk Down (2001). In 2003 he starred as Will Turner in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and returned for the sequels, including Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017).

He played Paris in Troy (2004) and led Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven and Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown (both 2005). In 2019 he moved to streaming with Carnival Row, playing the detective Philo. Biography.com notes he is a practicing Buddhist and a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

He married model Miranda Kerr in 2010. They had a son, Flynn, in 2011 and separated in 2013. He later became engaged to Katy Perry, and their daughter, Daisy Dove, was born in 2020. Britannica's Perry entry says the couple announced their breakup in June 2025.

Name notes for searchers

Orlando is his first name, and Jonathan and Blanchard are middle names. Copeland, which appears in the longer LOC record, is missing from the other citation, so both forms circulate. Bloom is his legal family surname even though Colin Stone was his biological father.