Martin John Christopher Freeman (born 8 September 1971) is an English actor. Among other accolades, he has won an Emmy Award, a BAFTA Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, and has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award.

Freeman's most notable roles are that of Tim Canterbury in the mockumentary series The Office (2001–2003), Dr. John Watson in the British crime drama series Sherlock (2010–2017), young Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit film trilogy (2012–2014), and Lester Nygaard in the first season of the dark comedy-crime drama series Fargo (2014). He has also appeared in films including the romantic comedy Love Actually (2003), the horror comedy Shaun of the Dead (2004), the sci-fi comedy The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), the action comedy Hot Fuzz (2007), the semi-improvised comedy Nativity! (2009), the sci-fi comedy The World's End (2013), and as Everett K. Ross in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero films Captain America: Civil War (2016), Black Panther (2018), and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022). He will reprise the role in the upcoming Disney series Secret Invasion (2023).

Early life
Martin John Christopher Freeman was born on 8 September 1971 in Aldershot, Hampshire, the youngest of five children.

His parents, Philomena (née Norris) and naval officer Geoffrey Freeman, separated when he was a child. His father died of a heart attack when Freeman was 10 years old.

Freeman's paternal grandfather, Leonard W. Freeman, was a medic in the British Expeditionary Force during World War II and was killed in action at Dunkirk just a few days before the Dunkirk evacuation.

Leonard's father, Richard, was born blind and worked as a piano tuner and organist at St Andrew's Church in West Tarring before becoming a music teacher in Kingston upon Hull.

Freeman was raised in his mother's Catholic faith, and attended the Salesian School in Chertsey, Surrey, before attending Brooklands College in nearby Weybridge for media studies. His older brother, Tim, became a singer with the group Frazier Chorus.