Kit Harington was born Christopher Catesby Harington in Acton, London, to Deborah Jane , a former playwright, and David Richard Harington, a businessman. His mother named him after 16th century British playwright and poet Christopher Marlowe, whose first name was shortened to Kit, a name Harington prefers. Harington's uncle is Sir Nicholas John Harington, the 14th Baronet Harington, and his paternal great-grandfather was Sir Richard Harington, the 12th Baronet Harington. Through his paternal grandmother, Lavender Cecilia Denny, Kit's eight times great-grandfather was King Charles II of England. Also through his father, Harington descends from politician Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, the bacon merchant T. A. Denny, clergyman Baptist Wriothesley Noel, merchant and politician Peter Baillie, peer William Legge, 4th Earl of Dartmouth, and MP Sir William Molesworth, 6th Baronet. Harington was a pupil at the Southfield Primary School from 1992 to 1998. When he was 11, his family moved to Worcestershire, and he studied at the Chantry High School in Martley until 2003. He became interested in acting after watching a production of Waiting for Godot when he was 14, and he performed in several school productions. He attended Worcester Sixth Form College, where he studied Drama and Theatre Studies, between 2003 and 2005. When he was 17, he was inspired to study acting in a drama school after watching a performance by Ben Whishaw playing Hamlet in 2004. He moved back to London when he was eighteen and a year later attended the Central School of Speech and Drama, from which he graduated in 2008.
Landed the role of Albert Narracott in the play War Horse while still at drama school.
Wanted to be a cameraman, a war correspondent and a journalist when he was young.
His mother, Deborah Jane (Catesby), is a playwright and artist, and his father, David Richard Harington, is a retired businessman.
He wore a wig for filming the "Game of Thrones" pilot but grew his hair out for the rest of the first season.
Sees himself first and foremost as a theatre trained actor.
He broke his ankle in 2012 when he was locked out of his apartment building in London and fell while trying to climb to his flat. During Season 3 of "Game of Thrones" the film crew had to figure out how to shoot around the injury, including the use of stand-ins in "Jon Snow wigs". Harington felt so guilty that he bought the production manager a bottle of whiskey.
Said hes never had long hair before "Game of Thrones" and he actually had to wear a wig in the first season. Harington intends to cut his hair short again after the series is complete.
Kits recent ancestry is English, as well as Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish, and Dutch. His distant roots include German, French, and Spanish, and, going back to the 1400s and 1500s, he also has remote Italian, Polish, Lithuanian, Austrian, and Danish ancestry. Kits father is from a prominent family, and descends from many Earls, Baronets, Peers, Dukes, and Viscounts. Many of Kits mothers ancestors lived in India and South Africa as part of British colonialism and Dutch settlements (through his mothers Dutch ancestry, Kit descends from Count Jacob van Reenen).
His paternal eight times great-grandfather was King Charles II of England. Charles II was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1660 to 1685, as well as King of Scotland from 1649 to 1651.
Son of Deborah Jane Catesby and David Richard Harington.
Brother of John Catesby Harington.
Attended the Central School of Speech and Drama.
Descended from a viscount who served as Britains Secretary of War at the turn of the 19th century, and is a nephew of a baronet; the family is listed in Burkes Peerage.
He was honored with Actor of the Year at the Young Hollywood Awards 2013.
On Pompeii , Kit Harington undertook a heavy bulking regime and a diet of 3000 calories a day to put on 2 stone of weight in 5 weeks. He then went on a very severe diet and cutting regime for 4 weeks to cut back from 12 stone to 10 stone acquiring intense muscle definition in the process.
Used to work in a book store where he often had to lift heavy copies of the A Song Of Ice and Fire series and grew to dislike George RR Martin as a result.
Kits maternal great-grandfather, Thomas Charles Cann Evans, who was born in England, was a Major in the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps. Thomass wife, Kits maternal great-grandmother Isabella Dorothy Joyce Dennys, was an artist known professionally as Joyce Dennys; she was born in Simla, India, to a European family.
Once got into a fight at a McDonalds restaurant because a guy was hitting on the girl he was with.
Is a huge David Lynch fan.
Did not know his real name was Christopher until he was 11.
Has a fear of spiders, needles, and flying. He gets around by car or train.
Is a horror movie buff with some of his favorites being The Shining , The Ring , The Wicker Man , and the Scream franchise.
Favorite movies are 25th Hour , Romeo + Juliet , Jurassic Park , Heat , Some Like It Hot , and If.... .
Has natural dark brown hair. He had to dye it black for the role of Jon Snow.
Is a descendant of Sir John Harington, the inventor of the flush toilet.
Good friends with "Game of Thrones" co-stars Richard Madden , Alfie Allen , John Bradley Rose Leslie and Emilia Clarke.
Became friends with singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran after both had inadvertently met while using adjacent urinals in the mens room.
Is a descendant on his mothers side of Robert Catesby, the character he played in the drama he created and produced, "Gunpowder" .
I try not to read the social networks too much. I find that way madness,lies.
I love going out. I love partying.
[on being a Harry Potter fan and believing the Sorting Hat would place,him in Gryffindor] No one wants to be in Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw is,boring, Slytherin is full of psychos as people know.
We are fascinated with our own history, and we are fascinated with the Romans because they were millennia ago, and yet they still capture our imagination because they were actually so similar to us. They were very civilized. They had a very similar political system.
