Thomas M. Bradshaw grew up in the Seattle area as the third of four children. He has also lived in the south of France for a little over a year as a youth, as well as a few years in northwest Florida, where he had his home swept from under his feet (quite metaphorically literally) by Hurricane Ivan, and been to many other interesting places around the world. He is a high school dropout and, after considering medicine, film, accounting, and aviation, he settled on pursuing a linguistics major at Brigham Young University. He served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Paris, France from 2005 to 2007. He was married on 27 March 2010 to Lisa Paulson, with whom he has at last found happiness.
He enjoys many an activity, including (but not nigh limited to) hiking, cooking, watching films, listening to and writing an eclectic set of music, playing instruments, traveling the globe, listening, walking, learning (not for school but despite it), reading, people-watching, debating both sides of an issue, and laying in silence and meditation.