Jacob Elordi

Jacob Elordi (born 26 June 1997) is an Australian actor. After moving to Los Angeles in 2017 to pursue an acting career, he gained prominence with his role as Noah Flynn, the bad boy love interest, in Netflix's ''The Kissing Booth'' film series (2018–2021). He also became known for his role as troubled high school football player Nate Jacobs in HBO's teen drama series ''Euphoria'' (2019–present). In 2023, he starred as Elvis Presley in the biographical film ''Priscilla'' and as a wealthy university student in '' Saltburn'', which earned him a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

Early life and education

Elordi was born on 26 June 1997 in Brisbane, Queensland, to a working class family consisting of his parents—Melissa, a stay-at-home mother and one-time cafeteria employee at Elordi's school, and John, a house painter who built the family's house—one older brother, and three older sisters. John was born in Markina-Xemein, Basque Country, and immigrated to Australia from Bilbao at age eight, escaping the Francoist dictatorship. His grandfather, Joaquín Elordi, was from Ondarroa. "My grandfather would strangle me if he knew that it said Spanish descent", Elordi said of his Wikipedia page, which originally said his father's family was from Spain before he corrected it to Basque.

While a player on his school's rugby team, Elordi performed in school musicals starting at age 12, starring in productions of ''Seussical'' and ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'', and he soon began taking acting classes. He was first inspired to become an actor by Heath Ledger, particularly because of his role as the Joker in the 2008 film ''The Dark Knight''. He also played Oberon in a production of ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''. At age 14, Elordi started practising his American accent, modelling it after that of Vin Diesel. He also attempted modelling at his mother's suggestion at age 15, but was told he was too tall to fit into the sample clothes. Elordi attended the private all-boys Roman Catholic secondary schools of St Kevin's College and St Joseph's College, where he felt "deeply unsettled". According to Elordi, he "barely finished high school".

Throughout secondary school, Elordi continued to play rugby until he broke a bone in his back during a match, which, according to him, pushed him away from athletics and toward acting. He has stated that, after reading ''Waiting for Godot'' in a drama class at age 15, acting "became ischurch" and his personality changed as a result. His mother also encouraged him to pursue acting. He was inspired by actors such as Marlon Brando, Laurence Olivier, Daniel Day-Lewis, Christian Bale, and Ledger, and would read their biographies while emulating their behaviours. He later attended an acting school in Melbourne and moved to the United States in 2017 at age 19 to pursue a career in acting.

Career

2017–2022: Early work and breakthrough

Elordi's first experience on a Hollywood film set was in 2017's '' Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales'' as an extra. His first acting role was on the Australian film '' Swinging Safari'' in 2018, playing the role of Rooster. Elordi starred in the Netflix romantic comedy film '' The Kissing Booth'', which premiered in May 2018, as Noah Flynn, a " bad-boy jock" and the film's primary love interest. Despite largely negative critical reception, the film became one of Netflix's most-watched titles in 2018 and brought Elordi to widespread fame.

Elordi reprised the role in the sequels ''The Kissing Booth 2'', which filmed in mid-2019 in Cape Town, and was released in July 2020; and ''The Kissing Booth 3'', which was released on Netflix in August 2021. In a 2023 interview for '' GQ'', he stated that he had not wanted to make them, calling them "ridiculous" and stating that he did them to "do whatever the fuck e hadto do" to become an actor in the United States. He also spoke out against his objectification as a result of the films.
After filming was completed for the first ''Kissing Booth'' film, Elordi moved to Los Angeles. He helped a friend of his film an audition for a role in Sam Levinson's HBO drama series ''Euphoria'', a remake of the Israeli series of the same name. While occasionally sleeping in his car and couch surfing at friends' houses with little money left and his visa expiring soon, he auditioned for ''Euphoria'' himself, with plans for it to be his last audition before moving back home. He was then selected to play Nate Jacobs, a troubled high school football player with an abusive father, whom he portrayed from the show's pilot episode in 2019. Elordi described the character as "a narcissist" and "a sociopath", while Clay Skipper of ''British GQ'' referred to the character as an antihero. The role was described by Maanya Sachdeva of ''The Guardian'' as an "impressive career pivot" for Elordi and Samantha Bergeson of '' IndieWire'' called it his breakout role.

During this time, Elordi also appeared in the 2019 horror anthology film '' The Mortuary Collection''. Elordi then starred in Lance Hool's 2020 romantic drama film '' 2 Hearts'' as Chris Gregory, a college student and the film's narrator, opposite Tiera Skovbye. ''Entertainment Weekly''s Maureen Lee Lenker wrote that his performance in the film was "ham-fistedly goofy" while Owen Gleiberman of ''Variety'' opined that Elordi was "done no favors by being in" ''2 Hearts''. He appeared later that year as Paul Hogan's son in the Australian comedy film '' The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee''. In 2022, he starred as Charlie, a piano teacher and one of Ana de Armas's character's lovers, in Adrian Lyne's erotic thriller '' Deep Water''.

2023–present: Diversification

In 2023, Elordi starred as Ian, a British film actor, in Sean Price Williams' drama film ''The Sweet East'', which premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival. Williams based Elordi's character in the film on Robert Pattinson following his role in '' The Twilight Saga''. He also starred in the 2023 crime thriller film '' He Went That Way'', adapted from the 1987 Conrad Hilberry novel ''Luke Karamazov'', as Bobby, a 19-year-old serial killer. The film received negative reviews from critics, with Glenn Kenny'' writing in a review, "Elordi's performance here lacks the discipline he applied to his work in ''Priscilla'' and even the wretched ''Saltburn''."

He next portrayed a controlling Elvis Presley in the Sofia Coppola–directed Priscilla Presley biopic ''Priscilla'', which is based on Priscilla's memoir '' Elvis and Me''. Coppola chose Elordi to play the role partially because of his "effect on women" during their first meeting, which she found comparable to Elvis's. ''Priscilla'' premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival, where it was met with positive reception. Gabriella Ferlita of ''PinkNews'' stated that Elordi "achieved countless words of praise for his rendition of The King" from critics. His performance was often compared by critics to that of Austin Butler in ''Elvis'' (2022). Richard Lawson of '' Vanity Fair'' wrote that Elordi "carefully calibrates Elvis's appeal and his pill-addled, domineering presence, his exacting demands and storms of frightening anger na more enlightening take on the man than the one seen in ''Elvis''".

In his final release of 2023, Elordi starred in Emerald Fennell's psychological drama '' Saltburn'' as Felix Catton, a wealthy and charismatic British Oxford University student. Critics from ''Empire'', ''The Detroit News'', and the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' described it as a star-making role for Elordi, while Nicholas Barber of BBC News described him in the film as "a revelation" and Marshall Shaffer of ''Slant'' wrote that his performance was "the secret weapon of ''Saltburn''". For the role, he earned a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

In 2024, Elordi hosted an episode of ''Saturday Night Live''. The episode received mostly negative critical reception for what critics found to be a heavy reliance on jokes about Elordi's attractiveness. Elordi starred in '' Oh, Canada'', a drama film directed by Paul Schrader, in which he played the younger version of Richard Gere's character, an aging documentary filmmaker reminiscing on his life. Critics noted the lack of resemblance between Elordi and Gere, particularly due to Elordi being about half a foot taller than Gere. His second film role that year was in ''On Swift Horses'', a period drama about LGBTQ relationships, in which he played Julius, a gambler who falls in love with another man (played by Diego Calva) in 1950s Las Vegas. He received acclaim for his work in the film from critics, including Robert Daniels of Screen Daily, who described it as "an electrifying performance", and Jourdain Searles of ''The Hollywood Reporter'', who said that "Elordi gives his best performance yet as Julius, showing his more sensitive, vulnerable side on the big screen for perhaps the first time."

In 2025, Elordi played the lead role in a miniseries adaptation of the novel ''The Narrow Road to the Deep North''. He will play Frankenstein's monster in the Netflix horror film ''Frankenstein'', directed by Guillermo del Toro, which is due to be released in November 2025. He will also star in Ridley Scott's science fiction film '' The Dog Stars''.

Public image

By the early 2020s, Elordi became known as a heartthrob and a sex symbol for Generation Z in the media. Gabriella Paiella of '' GQ'' wrote that Elordi had "classic, undeniable leading man looks", while Larisha Paul of ''Rolling Stone'' called him "Hollywood's reigning heartthrob of the 2020s". Elordi also became well known for his height of . Esther Zuckerman wrote of Elordi in ''The Atlantic'' that he was best known for being "very tall" and "very handsome in a classical way".

Elordi's relationships, including with ''Euphoria'' co-star Zendaya, model Kaia Gerber, ''The Kissing Booth'' co-star Joey King, and YouTuber Olivia Jade, also received widespread coverage in tabloids and on social media. Elordi was the face of Hugo Boss's Boss the Scent fragrance in January 2022. In March 2023, he became a global brand ambassador for the Swiss watch company TAG Heuer.

In February 2024, Joshua Fox, a producer for the KIIS 106.5 radio show ''The Kyle and Jackie O Show'', alleged on the show that, after he asked Elordi for his bath water—a reference to his role in ''Saltburn''—as a gift for host Jackie O, Elordi pushed him and put his hands around his neck. , the New South Wales Police Force were investigating the allegations.

Filmography

Film

Television

Accolades

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Elordi, Jacob
1997 births
21st-century Australian male actors
Australian expatriate male actors in the United States
Australian male film actors
Australian male television actors
Australian people of Basque descent
Australian people of Spanish descent
Living people
Male actors from Brisbane
People educated at St Joseph's College, Nudgee
People educated at St Kevin's College, Melbourne