Louis Troy Austin was born on 24 December 1991 in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England, to Johannah "Jay" Poulston and Troy Austin, who split up when he was a toddler. Tomlinson has some Belgian ancestry. He is estranged from his father and later took on his then stepfather Mark Tomlinson's surname, legally changing his name to Louis William Tomlinson.

He was raised with four younger half-sisters; Charlotte, Félicité (2000–2019), and twins Phoebe and Daisy from Poulston's marriage to Mark. He also has three other half-siblings; a younger paternal half-sister, Georgia, and twins Doris and Ernest (born 2014) from Poulston's relationship with Dan Deakin, whom she later married.

THE ROGUE

When Tomlinson was 14, he was kicked out of a band and replaced with a new vocalist. Tomlinson has cited this experience as motivation for him to audition for The X Factor. Louis auditioned for The X Factor in 2009, but failed to progress past the producer's audition. He was determined to return the following year.

THE X FACTOR

In 2010, Tomlinson auditioned for the seventh season of The X Factor singing competition, passed and received three yes, sending him to bootcamp. He failed to advance to the "Boys" category at the end of the bootcamp leg, however, following a suggestion from Scherzinger, he was paired with Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, and Harry Styles to form a five-piece boy band. , thus classifying itself to the category "Groups".

ONE DIRECTION

One Direction, often shortened to 1D, are an English-Irish pop boy band formed in London, England in 2010. The group are composed of Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, and previously Zayn Malik until his departure from the group in March 2015. The group signed with Simon Cowell's record label Syco Records after forming and finishing third in the seventh series of the British televised singing competition The X Factor in 2010.

Propelled to global success by social media, One Direction's five albums, Up All Night (2011), Take Me Home (2012), Midnight Memories (2013), Four (2014), and Made in the A.M. (2015), topped charts in several countries, and generated hit singles including "What Makes You Beautiful" (their first number one on the UK Singles Chart, and the highest debut for a British act on the US Billboard Hot 100 since 1998), "Live While We're Young", "Best Song Ever", "Story of My Life" and "Drag Me Down". After the release of Four, One Direction became the first band in the US Billboard 200 history to have their first four albums debut at number one.

first solo projectsOn 10 December 2016, Tomlinson released "Just Hold On", a collaborative effort with American DJ Steve Aoki. Tomlinson and Aoki performed the song live for the first time on The X Factor thirteenth series final on the day of its release. Tomlinson dedicated the song and performance to his late mother, who died of leukemia in December. Later released the singles "Back to You", "Just Like You" and "Miss You”.
wallsOn 23 October 2019, Tomlinson released another single, "We Made It". That same day, he also announced that he would be embarking on the Louis Tomlinson World Tour. Furthermore, he announced that his debut album was entitled Walls and was scheduled to be released on 31 January 2020.
                        On 17 January 2020, he released "Walls", the fifth and the final single from his debut album.
Faith in the FutureIn August 2022, it was announced that Tomlinson's second studio album was finished. That same month, tracks from the album were leaked, with Tomlinson saying he was "gutted".
                        On 31 August, Tomlinson announced that his second album Faith in the Future would be released on 11 November 2022. The album's lead single, "Bigger Than Me", was released on 1 September.