Sir Thomas Shakespeare is an English sociologist and bioethicist and was born in Aylesbury in 1966.

While still a student, Tom was featured in a television documentary by Lord Snowdon connected to his 1976 report “Integrating the Disabled” about his restricted growth, along with his father, a prominent medical practitioner, who was also born with achondroplasia

Shakespeare was educated at Radley College, Oxfordshire, taking A-levels in English, History, and History of Art; and Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he matriculated in 1984 to read Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic. He gained an MPhil degree from King’s College, Cambridge, in 1991.

Shakespeare then lectured in sociology at the University of Sunderland from 1993 and returned to King’s College in 1995 to obtain his PhD degree. He is also a campaigner for disability rights, a writer on disability, genetics and bioethics and was the co-author of The Sexual Politics of Disability (1996; ISBN 0-304-33329-8)

He studied political science at Cambridge University. As a student, he supported liberation movements such as feminism, anti-racism and lesbian and gay rights. During his MPhil, he wrote a book about the politics of disability. He also wrote the book Disability Rights and Wrongs published by Routledge in 2006 and edited Arguing About Disability published in 2009 by Routledge.

Shakespeare was a coauthor and coeditor of the 2011 World Report on Disability, published by the World Health Organization and World Bank. He served as a member of the Arts Council of England between 2003 and 2008. He has presented programmes on BBC Radio 4, including A Point of View.

Shakespeare is (as of 2021) Professor of Disability Research in the medical faculty at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and was previously Professor of Disability Research in the medical faculty at the University of East Anglia (UEA).

In 2016 he featured on the ITV show 500 Questions, winning £14,000 by answering 42 out of 50 questions. He received a standing ovation for his efforts.