Jacob Elordi

Jacob Elordi (born 26 June 1997) is an Australian actor. His accolades include a Critics' Choice Movie Award and two AACTA Awards, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, three British Academy Film Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. Elordi rose to prominence with his role as Noah Flynn in Netflix's The Kissing Booth franchise (2018–2021) and earned critical acclaim for his portrayal of Nate Jacobs in the HBO drama series Euphoria (2019–present). In 2023, Elordi portrayed Elvis Presley in Sofia Coppola's Priscilla and also appeared in Emerald Fennell's Saltburn, with his performance in Saltburn earning him a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

He received continued recognition for his performances in the war drama miniseries The Narrow Road to the Deep North and as the Creature in Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein (both 2025), both of which won him AACTA Awards. His role in Frankenstein also earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Early life

Jacob Elordi was born on 26 June 1997 in Brisbane, to Melissa Elordi, a stay-at-home mother and school volunteer, and John Elordi, a house painter. Elordi's father was born in Markina-Xemein, Basque Country; he immigrated to Australia from Bilbao when he was eight years old to escape the Francoist dictatorship. Elordi's paternal grandfather, Joaquín Elordi, was from Ondarroa. Elordi has three older sisters, and grew up in a working class household.

Elordi spent the first 12 years of his life in Brisbane, before relocating to Melbourne in 2010 for four years while his sister attended the Australian Ballet School. He returned to his hometown of Brisbane in 2013 when he was 16 years old to finish high school. Growing up, he was a talented junior athlete, representing Victoria in both rugby union and basketball and was a member of the under-16 national championship winning Victorian basketball team in 2012. 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 Nudgee College, where he felt "deeply unsettled". He graduated from St Joseph's Nudgee College in 2015 and according to Elordi, he "barely finished high school".

Throughout secondary school, Elordi continued to play rugby until he injured 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 [his] church" 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 for one year 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, reportedly as one of the redcoats. His first acting role was on the Australian film Swinging Safari in 2018, playing the role of Rooster.

Elordi co-starred opposite Joey King 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 [he had] to 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. 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 the son of the title character in the Australian comedy film The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee. In 2022, he appeared as Charlie, a piano teacher, in Adrian Lyne's erotic thriller Deep Water.

In the first half of 2023, Elordi appeared 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 of The New York Times writing in a review, "Elordi's performance here lacks the discipline he applied to his work in Priscilla and even the wretched Saltburn."

2023–present: Critical acclaim and stardom

In late 2023, Elordi portrayed Elvis Presley in the Sofia Coppola–directed Priscilla Presley biopic Priscilla opposite Cailee Spaeny in the titular role. 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. Elordi was uninterested in portraying Elvis, partially due to the singing and dancing aspect of the person, but was eager to work with Coppola. 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 [in] a 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.