Draft:Tom Sean

Tom Sean (born Tomas Sean Pšenička, 9 July 2004) is a Czech singer, songwriter, composer, music producer, and actor. He came to prominence in 2018 with his debut chart-topping single "Heart Hotel", as well as "Reach the Stars" a year later. Since then, he has released twelve more singles, including a main song for a movie.

Background
Tom Sean was born in Dublin, Ireland, from where he and his family moved to the Czech Republic, where he attended Emma Destinová Primary School. From there he continued to the Prague Conservatory, where he studies acting.

Thanks to the fact that he spent a large part of his life in Ireland, where he was born, he has spoken two languages — Czech and English — since he was a child.

His father, a developer by profession, has never been involved in art. However, his mother, Bohdana, was a front woman of a punk band in her youth and his brother is an actor, singer and presenter David Gránský. He has another (the eldest) brother, Jaroslav, who makes a living as a real estate broker. Tom is the youngest of the three.

2018-2019 - beginnings
Tom was relatively unknown outside of Musical.ly (now TikTok) where he would gain a small fanbase by posting short, mostly musical videos. His online content would eventually get him discovered by Czech producer and manager Honza Gajdoš. The two agreed they would not take advantage of Tom’s older brother David’s wide popularity and rather start from ground zero. That's why the public aware of this family bond for a long time.

Tom Sean released his debut single "Heart Hotel" on 25 November 2018. Its music video has gained over 756,000 views on YouTube, scored on the radio charts and topped the iTunes sales charts in Czechia. The American songwriter Michael Jay, who previously worked with artists such as Eminem or Celine Dion, wrote the song and Honza Gajdoš took part as a producer. The same duo is credited on Sean's second single "Reach The Stars", which features a rap verse from Justice. The song was a major commercial success, winning the Kiss rádio chart.

Tom’s third single — featuring actress and singer Mína, Slovak rapper ESO and Dominika Myslivcova — “Neboj se ríct”, came out 21 June 2019. It deals with bullying and aims to support its victims and give them the courage to speak up. Alongside with the song’s release, a massive media campaign was launched, many respected figures from the Czech entertainment industry declared their support for the song’s cause, including the Slovak rapper Rytmus with his wife and well-known presenter Jasmina Alagic, actor Martin Dejdar, or actress Sabina Laurinová. The music video for the song has over 838,000 views on YouTube, making it Sean’s most viewed video on the platform.

Under a new label, a single called “Lost” saw the light of day in October 2019. Its almost vigorously romantic theme is based on actual events. The lyrics are about Tom’s friend whose life he saved in the middle of a summer night out. This very intense experience for such a young person inspired Tom to start writing lyrics.

Just two months later, the release of “Stopy” followed. The song was written and performed by Tom and rap artist Lil Grippie. “Stopy” stands out in Sean’s catalogue as his first song written in Czech.

2020-2022 – Nevinný oběti, Závislý, Ubal a zmiz, Noční Praha and from singer to an occasional producer
Tom continued on writing in Czech. On his single “Nevinný oběti”, released on 14 February 2020 he discusses issues of racial discrimination, homophobia and bullying. The song’s title refers to the following passage of the lyrics (translated from Czech): “…Whatever color your eyes are, whatever is the shade of your skin / Innocent victims fall in Orlando”. The line is a reference to the 2016 mass shooting at the Pulse gay club in Orlando, in which 50 people were killed.

In June 2020, Tom released his second duet with Slovak rapper ESO, called “Závislý”. A year later, on 26 June 2021, a remix version was released.

On 3 August 2020, Tom released the single “Fine”, whose production was again handled by Honza Gajdoš. Tome co-wrote the music and lyrics with a fellow singer-songwriter, Vojta Marek, on whose songs Tom later took part as a producer. He gained skills in this musical discipline during the coronavirus pandemic and the associated lockdowns, thanks to which he had a lot of free time. He devoted most of it to improving his production skills, which he used later that year when he took part on Vojta Marek’s debut single IN YOUR CAR.

In 2020, he also became more involved as a composer and lyricist. He is co-author of the song “Jiný” by his then classmate and musical colleague, Naty Hrychová. He also worked on “Díky vám” — a song performed by the actors from the soapy series “Nurses“ as a thank you to all the real health workers and the work they've done during the pandemic. Tom co-wrote the song with his brother David, who plays one of the key roles in the series and wrote the lyrics, whereas Tom composed the music.

On 13 December 2020, a single titled “TY TO VÍŠ” came out. Shortly after the release, the song had a moderate success in the Radio Junior chart, where it stayed for 10 weeks.

Two months later, in February, Sean released the music video for a new song, “Sami,” whose lyrics respond to the evolution of interpersonal relationships, loneliness, and the overall bitterness — results of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Ubal a zmiz”, the theme song of the film comedy of the same name, for which he wrote the music together with guitarist and singer Jaroslav Diviš, followed it. The song came out as a single on 13 June 2021, produced by Honza Gajdoš.

In August 2021, he released an R&B inspired song called “Noční Praha" with Slovak singer Klarisa. It’s Sean’s second Czech-Slovak release, “Závislý” being the first. With its 475,000 views on YouTube and 180,000 streams on Spotify, Noční Praha became one of the singer’s regular hits. Four months later, Sean released the single “Vždycky budeš”.

He is currently working on his debut album. Produced by Honza Gajdoš, it will contain 12 songs and should be released in 2023.

Acting career
Tom studies acting at the Prague Conservatory and has always been close to acting thanks to his family. He first appeared on the television screen at fourteen in the series "Modrý kód" as Jakub, and a year later in the series Krejzovi.

Since 2019 he has been shooting a trailer for the upcoming film “Provařená“, in which he plays the character of Lukas. The film is based on the novel of the same name, and Tom will appear in it alongside, for example, Barbara Seidlová or David Kraus.

Tom started the year 2022 with several acting successes. Besides appearing in the successful series Chlap and Specialisté, we will soon see him on the silver screen. He started shooting the feature film Amerikanka directed by Viktor Tauš. He will thus appear alongside with Tereza Rambo, who took on the main role of Eliška in the film.