Tom Everett Scott was born and raised in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, the third of four children of Cynthia (Pierce), an insurance saleswoman, and William Joseph Scott, who was a civil engineer. Tom spent his childhood in a "nice house in the woods", with a pond nearby, canoeing and camping. He acted in high school plays, but Tom planned to quit acting, and take a more serious look at the world. So, he enrolled in communications at Syracuse University in 1988. During his sophomore year he says "I went down to the theater and saw everything going on-people jumping around being idiots-and I thought, 'This is my home. This is where I should be.'" So, Tom switched his major to drama, and upon graduating, he moved to New York City. There, he waited tables, and eventually founded a theater company with 3 college buddies that they named "aTheaterco".