TomSka

Thomas James "Tom" Ridgewell (born: ), better known online as TomSka, is an English YouTuber, filmmaker, actor, comedian, musician, and former animator and artist.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdC5AGuacbg
He is best known as the creator of the animated YouTube series asdfmovie, and one of the creators of the card game based on the asdfmovie sub-series Muffin Time. He is also known for being the former showrunner, writer, director, and producer for Edd Gould's Eddsworld animated series after Gould died in 2012 from leukemia. He held this position from 2012 to 2016.
His main channel TomSka consists of sketch comedy videos, animations, and other miscellaneous skits, while his second channel TomSka & Friends contains vlogs, challenges, and commentary videos. Tom is known as one of YouTube's earliest sketch comedians.
==Content==
Tom has two channels: TomSka and TomSka & Friends (formerly known as DarkSquidge). His TomSka channel focuses on sketch comedy with other YouTubers and is mainly known for the asdfmovie series. There are 15 in the series so far, not including the deleted scenes. 
While making videos for YouTube, Ridgewell was almost expelled from The University of Lincoln for posting parodies of the university's adverts, which he wrote out of spite during a boring lecture. This was because of the inappropriate content shown in the videos, later being forgiven when the faculty witnessed the high view count. 
Tom's main channel, TomSka, is where he uploads sketches and animations he has directed. Tom's second channel, TomSka & Friends, is mainly used for his variety series CONTENT, which he either films by himself, or with his fellow YouTubers Elliot Gough (ElliotExplicit) and Eddie Bowley (Eddache). Additionally, he has a monthly vlog series titled Last Month, which he ran from 2018 to 2019, before reviving in 2023.
The channel is also the host to the Scrap'd Week series, in which Tom discusses his history of unreleased videos (Rainbows, The TomSka Song) or versions of videos that didn't make the cut (First Date, Cake and Literal Drinks).
Tom hosted a weekly vlog titled Last Month from 2016 to 2017, which has since been superceeded by Last Month. Most recently, he has started a new series in 2021 named Try Hards, also featuring ElliotExplicit and Eddache.
==Personal life==
While pregnant with Tom and his then-twin sister Amelia, Tom's mother got into a car accident caused by a reckless driver. Although Amelia died in the womb, leading doctors to believe Tom had died also, he survived and was born prematurely on June 27, 1990, in Essex, England.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46bLFAu0D8I
Growing up a Jehovah's Witness, Tom and his family avoided most major holidays and celebrations such as Halloween, Christmas, and birthdays. However, as a substitute, his family created their own holiday called "Present Giving Day".
At the age of 4, Tom and his family moved from Essex to Cambridge, where he was enrolled into Milton Road Primary School. Tom has stated that he cried a lot as a child. Around this time, he had two cats called Tiggy and Totty, and was friends with his older neighbor Jonny, who introduced Tom to the internet and video games.
At age 9, Tom became the pupil of a teacher who would, every year, choose a specific student to routinely ridicule and shame: that year, Tom was chosen to be humiliated. The constant ridicule deeply affected Tom's mental health, ultimately leading him to develop a comfort eating habit. This led to him gaining an unhealthy amount of weight. One day, after arriving to collect her son from school, Tom's mother found him rocking silently on the floor: after this, his mood began to worsen as he became angrier and unhappier. Tom was scared to sleep alone, and many doctors believed he was autistic. Tom sat an IQ test to see if he had a learning disability. Tom scored incredibly high on the test and was accepted into Mensa. His family removed him from Milton Road Primary and began searching for other options.
==Series==
===Eddsworld===
In 2003, Tom met then 14-year-old Edd Gould online. He and Edd started to produce an animated series called "Eddsworld" around 2005. Later on, in 2005, he became the main voice of his character in the series, along with Edd and two of Edd's other friends, who together made the cast of 4 main characters, Tom, Edd, Matt, and Tord. 
They found success in this series and they become an icon on Newgrounds and YouTube. After Tom graduated from university, he had planned to live and work with Edd in a studio apartment. The series took a rapid turn when in 2012, Edd passed away due to an infection brought on by leukemia, which he had been battling since 2006, leading Tom to take over the production of Eddsworld, with the blessing of Edd's family. 
Tom's run continued until 2016, at which point he left, and has made an effort to steer clear of Eddsworld due to the grief of losing one of his closest friends and the harassment that comes from certain aspects of the Eddsworld fandom. Production of the third series, Eddsworld Beyond, is headed by Matt Hargreaves and Christopher Bingham, with support from Edd's family.
===asdfmovie===
:For more information about asdfmovie, see the Asdfmovie Wiki.
asdfmovie is a popular animated series he made. Each movie is composed of various animations. Movies in this series could also have multiple voice actors. Here is the list of asdfmovies:
*asdfmovie
*asdfmovie2
*asdfmovie3
*asdfmovie4
*asdfmovie5
*asdfmovie6
*asdfmovie7
*asdfmovie8
*asdfmovie9
*asdfmovie10
*asdfmovie11
*asdfmovie12
*asdfmovie13
*asdfmovie14
*asdfmovie15
====Muffin Time====
In 2019, Tom announced a Kickstarter for an asdfmovie card game called Muffin Time. The Kickstarter was a massive success, raising £1,051,742 over its original £10,000 goal.
===Crash Zoom===
:For more information about Crash Zoom, see the Crash Zoom Wiki.
Crash Zoom is another animated series he made. The series centres around the misadventures of aspiring filmmaker Ben, tired animator Lucy and Kate, Ben's little sister who practices demonic rituals. The three friends try to succeed in their various schemes to become professional filmmakers but their plans usually backfire in their faces. 
=== Super Average ===
Super Average was a planned animated series Tom worked on with Edd Gould, but was put on hold and reworked after his passing. The series is based in the same universe as Eddsworld but focused on completely different main characters, excluding Tord who would appear as a villain named Red Leader, though his connection to Tord would be implied rather than outright stated. Some teasers, concept art and comic panels from the planning phase are publicly available, but there seems to be no future plans to finish them or release the series after Tom distanced himself from Eddsworld. 
==== #CONTENT ====
#CONTENT was a series Tom created on his second channel, which at the time was called DarkSquidge, predominantly with Elliot Gough and Eddie Bowley, in which he engaged in challenges and games. The series ended in 2020.
===== Try-Hards =====
Try-Hards is an ongoing series on Tom's second channel in which he pits his friends against each other in comedic challenges. Originally, the contestants were him, Eddie Bowley and Elliot Gough, but Elliot parted ways with the channel, leaving him to bring in guest contestants for future episodes such as Reb Day and Jay Foreman.
==Channel milestones==
===Subscriber milestones===
*1 Thousand Subscribers: Jun 2008
*2 Thousand Subscribers: Jul 2008
*3 Thousand Subscribers: Sep 2008
*4 Thousand Subscribers: Oct 2008
*5 Thousand Subscribers: Nov 2008
*6 Thousand Subscribers: Jan 2009
*7 Thousand Subscribers: Feb 2009
*8 Thousand Subscribers: Feb 2009
*9 Thousand Subscribers: Mar 2009
*10 Thousand Subscribers: Jun 2009
*20 Thousand Subscribers: Sep 2009
*30 Thousand Subscribers: Oct 2009
*40 Thousand Subscribers: Oct 2009
*50 Thousand Subscribers: Jan 2010
*60 Thousand Subscribers: Mar 2010
*70 Thousand Subscribers: May 2010
*80 Thousand Subscribers: Jul 2010
*90 Thousand Subscribers: Sep 2010
*100 Thousand Subscribers: Oct 2010
*200 Thousand Subscribers: Mar 2011
*300 Thousand Subscribers: Sep 2011
*400 Thousand Subscribers: Oct 2011
*500 Thousand Subscribers: Nov 2011
*600 Thousand Subscribers: Feb 2012
*700 Thousand Subscribers: May 2012
*800 Thousand Subscribers: Jun 2012
*900 Thousand Subscribers: Jul 2012
*1 million subscribers: Oct 2012
*2 million subscribers: Jul 2013
*3 million subscribers: Sep 2014
*4 million subscribers: Mar 2016
*5 million subscribers: Jun 2018
*6 million subscribers: Sep 2019
*7 million subscribers: Oct 2021
===Video view milestones===
*100 million views: September 23, 2011
*200 million views: April 16, 2012
*300 million views: November 13, 2012
*400 million views: August 5, 2013
*500 million views: May 17, 2014
*600 million views: January 12, 2015
*700 million views: August 24, 2015
*800 million views: April 22, 2016
*900 million views: January 16, 2017
*1 billion views: June 25, 2017
*2 billion views: October 25, 2022
==Trivia==
*Tom was originally going to be named Dudley.
*Tom had previously stated that he had no gag reflex due to part of his braces lodging in his throat.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ2wwLh1dhU
**However, Tom's gag reflex returned in 2020, during an episode of CONTENT.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-ws-KO4DUc
*Tom has said that he is great at trumpet impressions. It is even shown in asdfmovie 6.
*Tom plays the bass guitar (occasionally). He also plays left-handed, as seen in Guitar Warfare and Mine Turtle.
*Tom used to own the YouTube username 'fuck' to celebrate a subscriber milestone (https://youtube.com/fuck), but it was changed by YouTube due to rule violation.https://web.archive.org/web/20130224092643/https://youtube.com/fuck
*Tom was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, but no longer practices this faith. He still expresses a belief in God. Also, because of his upbringing, he did not celebrate holidays such as Christmas, Halloween and Easter.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ2wwLh1dhU
*Tom's father is of English, Scottish, and German descent, and his mother was of Ashkenazi Jewish (Russian and Ukrainian), Irish, and English descent.
*Tom owns many fan made and official merch pieces and knickknacks from various projects he's created or been featured in, which he keeps in his office as a backdrop. An image of said backdrop is often green screened in behind him in videos. 
*Tom has a scar on his forehead as a result of falling from his grandmother's attic as a child, in which he also broke his wrist.
*As a child, Tom once severed his heel after lodging it in the spokes of his father's moped.
*At one point, JschlattLIVE's Minecraft skin was that of TomSka's skin, before he changed the body.https://twitter.com/thetomska/status/1394423773856780289
*Tom has fears of heights, clowns, and the concept of eternity.
*He's also the main antagonist of the RittyTOONZ series.https://rittytoonz.fandom.com/wiki/SAVE_PUFFY https://rittytoonz.fandom.com/wiki/Tom
*He voiced Pineapple on Battle for Dream Island.
*He is a figment of Barney the Dinosaur's imagination. 
==Gallery==
TomSka2012BuySomeShirts.jpg|Thomas in 2012
==References==
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Category:Users who joined in 2006
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