Christopher Hemsworth (born 11 August 1983) is an Australian actor. He rose to prominence playing Kim Hyde in the Australian television series Home and Away (2004–2007) before beginning a film career in Hollywood. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Hemsworth started playing Thor with the 2011 film of the same name and most recently reprised the role in Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), which established him among the world's highest-paid actors. His other film roles include the action films Star Trek (2009), Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), Red Dawn (2012), Blackhat (2015), Men in Black: International (2019), Extraction (2020), the thriller A Perfect Getaway (2009) and the comedy Ghostbusters (2016). Hemsworth's most critically acclaimed films include the comedy horror The Cabin in the Woods (2012) and the biographical sports film Rush (2013) in which he portrayed James Hunt. Christopher Hemsworth was born on 11 August 1983 in Melbourne, to Leonie (née van Os), an English teacher, and Craig Hemsworth, a social-services counsellor. He is the second of three sons, following Luke (born 1980) and preceding Liam (born 1990); both of them are also actors. His maternal grandfather is a Dutch immigrant and his maternal grandmother is of Irish descent; on his paternal line he is of English, Scottish, and German ancestry. He was brought up both in Melbourne and in the Outback in Bulman, Northern Territory. He has said, "My earliest memories were on the cattle stations up in the Outback, and then we moved back to Melbourne and then back out there and then back again. Certainly most of my childhood was in Melbourne but probably my most vivid memories were up there [in Bulman] with crocodiles and buffalo. Very different walks of life." He attended high school at Heathmont College before his family again returned to the Northern Territory, and then moved a few years later to Phillip Island.