Jacob Elordi: The Rise of Hollywood's New Leading Man

Jacob Elordi became famous at twenty-one for playing a handsome high school boyfriend in a Netflix romantic comedy, and he has spent every year since trying to prove he is more than that. Most actors who become famous that young, in that kind of role, spend the rest of their careers trapped inside it. Elordi refused to be trapped. He took a dark, disturbing role in Euphoria, he played Elvis Presley for Sofia Coppola, he played a doomed aristocrat in Saltburn, and he played the Creature in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, buried under prosthetics and speaking almost no dialogue. He is twenty-eight years old, and he has already built a filmography that looks like the work of an actor twice his age. He is also one of the most private young stars in Hollywood, a man who dislikes fame, who loves old films, and who chooses his roles with a seriousness that surprises people who only know him from The Kissing Booth. This is the story of how he got from Brisbane to the centre of serious cinema in less than a decade.

Brisbane, a Painter’s Son, and a Boy Who Loved Films

Jacob Nathaniel Elordi was born on 26 June 1997 in Brisbane, Australia, to John Elordi, a house painter, and Melissa Elordi. He has two older sisters, Isabelle and Jalynn, and he grew up in a working-class household where money was not plentiful but love was. He attended St Joseph’s Nudgee College in Brisbane, a Catholic boys’ school, and later St Kevin’s College in Melbourne. He was tall, athletic, and quiet, and he played rugby and Australian rules football. But his real passion was film. He watched old movies obsessively, he collected DVDs, and he dreamed of being an actor in the way that only a teenager who has seen too many films can dream. He was not a child actor. He did not grow up on sets. He grew up in Brisbane, watching films in his bedroom, and imagining a life that seemed impossibly far away.

He started acting in school plays, and he discovered that he loved the feeling of being on stage. He took drama classes, he performed in amateur productions, and he began to think seriously about acting as a career. He moved to Melbourne to pursue it, and he worked as an extra on films, including Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales in 2017, where he was an uncredited background performer. That experience, standing in the background of a huge Hollywood production, taught him something important: he did not want to be in the background. He wanted to be the person the camera was looking at, and he wanted to earn that attention with work, not with luck. He went back to auditioning, and he kept going to classes, and he waited for the break that would change everything. It came sooner than he expected, and in a form he did not expect.

Swinging Safari and the First Small Steps

Elordi’s first credited film role came in 2018, in Swinging Safari, an Australian comedy-drama set in the 1970s, directed by Stephan Elliott. He played Rooster, a teenager in a beachside town, and the role was small but real. It was his first experience of a professional film set as a named actor, and it taught him the basics: how to hit a mark, how to work with a director, and how to survive a long day of filming. The film was a modest success in Australia, and it gave Elordi his first credit, his first reviews, and his first sense that acting could be a real career. He was twenty years old, and he had a film credit, but he was still unknown outside Australia. That would change within months, in a way that would define the next phase of his life.

He was also working on his craft in other ways. He was reading scripts, watching films, and studying the actors he admired. He has spoken about his love for old Hollywood, for Marlon Brando, for James Dean, and for the actors of the 1970s who brought a raw, physical intensity to their work. He was not interested in being a teen idol. He was interested in being a serious actor, and he was already thinking about the roles he wanted to play. But the industry had other ideas. The industry saw a tall, handsome twenty-year-old with dark hair and a strong jaw, and it saw a romantic lead. The first role that came to him was exactly that, and it would make him famous in a way he had not planned and did not entirely want.

The Kissing Booth and Overnight Fame He Did Not Ask For

In 2018, Elordi was cast as Noah Flynn in The Kissing Booth, a Netflix romantic comedy based on a novel by Beth Reekles. The film was about a high school girl who falls in love with her best friend’s older brother, and it was designed to be a light, fun, teenage romance. It became a phenomenon. The Kissing Booth was one of the most-watched films on Netflix that year, and Elordi, as the brooding, handsome Noah, became an instant teen idol. His face was on posters, his name was trending on social media, and teenage fans around the world knew who he was. He was twenty-one years old, and he was famous. He has said since that the experience was overwhelming, and that he was not prepared for it. He had wanted to be an actor, not a celebrity, and the two things turned out to be very different.

He made two sequels, The Kissing Booth 2 in 2020 and The Kissing Booth 3 in 2021, and each one was successful. But with each film, he felt more trapped. He was playing the same character, the same handsome boyfriend, and he was worried that audiences would never see him as anything else. He has spoken about that fear honestly, saying that he was grateful for the opportunity but that he knew he had to break away from it. He also began a relationship with his co-star Joey King, who played Elle in the films, and the relationship, and its ending, were covered obsessively by the press and by fans online. The experience taught him something about fame that would shape the rest of his career: the public does not only want your work. It wants your life, and it will take it if you let it. Elordi decided not to let it, and he has been fiercely private ever since.

Euphoria and the Dark Side of Nate Jacobs

The break came in 2019, when Elordi was cast as Nate Jacobs in Euphoria, HBO’s raw, unflinching drama about teenagers in a Los Angeles high school. Nate is a terrifying character: a star athlete, a handsome young man, and a violent, manipulative abuser who hides his cruelty behind charm. It was the opposite of Noah Flynn, and Elordi played it with a commitment that shocked audiences who had only seen him in romantic comedies. He was frightening, he was magnetic, and he was completely believable as a young man whose anger was destroying everyone around him. The series, created by Sam Levinson and starring Zendaya, became a cultural phenomenon, and Elordi’s performance was singled out as one of the best in the show.

Playing Nate was difficult, and Elordi has said that the role took a toll on him. He had to access anger and cruelty that did not come naturally to him, and he had to do it in scenes that were emotionally and physically intense. He has also said that the experience taught him what he was capable of as an actor. He could play darkness, he could play complexity, and he could hold an audience’s attention without being likeable. That is a rare skill, and it is the skill that separates a star from an actor. Euphoria gave him credibility with directors and with critics, and it gave him the freedom to choose his next roles on his own terms. He was no longer the boy from The Kissing Booth. He was a serious actor, and the industry knew it.

Priscilla: Playing Elvis for Sofia Coppola

In 2023, Elordi took on the most challenging role of his career so far: Elvis Presley in Priscilla, Sofia Coppola’s film about Priscilla Presley’s life with Elvis. The film was based on Priscilla’s memoir, and it told the story from her perspective, showing Elvis not as a legend but as a husband, a flawed and complicated man. Elordi had to play Elvis without imitating him, without doing a caricature, and without competing with the memory of a man who is one of the most famous figures in history. He prepared by studying Elvis’s voice, his movements, and his manner, and by working with a dialect coach to capture the soft, Southern accent. The result was a performance that surprised critics. He did not play Elvis as a caricature. He played him as a man, charming and loving and also controlling and distant, and the performance was praised as one of the best of the year.

The role mattered for another reason. It was directed by Sofia Coppola, one of the most respected directors in the world, and working with her was a statement of intent. Elordi was not taking roles in blockbusters. He was taking roles with auteurs, with directors who had a vision, and he was trusting them to guide him. Coppola has said that she chose Elordi because of his stillness, because of the way he could hold a scene without doing very much, and because of the sadness she saw in him. That stillness is the quality that defines his best work. He does not overact. He does not show off. He lets the camera come to him, and he trusts the audience to see what is happening inside. Priscilla proved that he could carry a major film, and that he could play a real person without losing himself in imitation.

Saltburn and the Role That Broke the Internet

Later in 2023, Elordi starred in Saltburn, Emerald Fennell’s dark, provocative film about a young man who becomes obsessed with a wealthy classmate. He played Felix Catton, the golden boy, the handsome, charming, effortlessly popular aristocrat who invites Oliver Quick, played by Barry Keoghan, to spend the summer at his family’s estate. The film was a sensation. It was shocking, funny, and deeply unsettling, and Elordi’s performance was central to its success. Felix is a character who seems perfect on the surface, and Elordi played him with a warmth and a generosity that made the film’s ending genuinely shocking. Audiences loved Felix, and they were devastated by what happened to him, and that reaction was a testament to Elordi’s skill. He made a character who could have been a caricature feel real, and he made the audience care about him.

Saltburn also made Elordi a fashion icon. The film’s 2000s aesthetic, its tailoring, its colours, and its mood, became a trend, and Elordi’s face was on magazine covers around the world. He was suddenly one of the most photographed young men in Hollywood, and he handled the attention with the same privacy he had always shown. He did not court it, he did not perform for it, and he did not let it change the way he worked. He has said that he finds fame uncomfortable, and that he would rather be known for his work than for his image. That attitude is rare in a young star, and it is one reason directors trust him. He is not interested in being famous. He is interested in being good, and that focus shows in every role he takes.

Frankenstein: The Creature and the Boldest Choice Yet

In 2025, Elordi made the boldest choice of his career. He played the Creature in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, a film that had been the director’s dream project for decades. The role was originally offered to Andrew Garfield, who had to drop out, and Elordi stepped in. He spent hours in prosthetics every day, wearing a costume that transformed him into a towering, scarred being, and he played the Creature with a gentleness and a sadness that was heartbreaking. The film was released on Netflix, and it was praised for its beauty, its emotion, and Elordi’s performance. He spoke almost no dialogue, and he communicated the Creature’s longing, his anger, and his humanity through his body and his eyes. It was the opposite of the handsome leading man roles that had made him famous, and it was the clearest proof yet that he was not afraid of disappearing into a character.

The role also showed his range in a way that no previous film had. He had played a teen heartthrob, a violent athlete, a rock and roll legend, and a golden aristocrat. Now he was playing a monster, and he was making the audience love the monster. That is the hardest thing an actor can do, and Elordi did it without vanity, without concern for his image, and without asking the audience to admire him. He asked them to feel for a creature who had been abandoned by his creator, and they did. Del Toro has said that Elordi understood the Creature immediately, that he saw the sadness in the character rather than the horror, and that the performance was built on that understanding. The director had waited decades to make the film, and he trusted a twenty-eight-year-old to carry its emotional centre. That trust says everything about where Elordi stands in the industry today. The performance was a turning point, because it proved that Elordi was willing to sacrifice his looks, his fame, and his comfort for a role he believed in. That willingness is the mark of a serious actor, and it is the reason his future is so bright.

The Narrow Road, On Swift Horses, and the Work That Followed

Between the big films, Elordi kept working on smaller, more personal projects. In 2024, he appeared in On Swift Horses, a drama about love and longing in post-war America, and in Oh, Canada, Paul Schrader’s film about a dying documentary filmmaker. Both films were serious, adult dramas, and both gave him roles that asked for subtlety rather than star power. In 2025, he starred in The Narrow Road to the Deep North, a miniseries based on Richard Flanagan’s Booker Prize-winning novel about an Australian surgeon who survives a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. The role was personal for Elordi, because it was an Australian story, and because it asked him to play a man shaped by war and by loss. He played it with a restraint and a depth that impressed critics, and the series was praised as one of the best television dramas of the year.

He has also been cast as Heathcliff in Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights, scheduled for release in 2026, opposite Margot Robbie as Catherine. The casting is a statement of where he stands in the industry. Heathcliff is one of the great roles in literature, a character who is passionate, violent, and unforgettable, and Elordi is the actor Fennell chose to play him after working with him on Saltburn. The film is one of the most anticipated of 2026, and it will be a test of whether Elordi can carry a classic literary adaptation on his own name. Given his track record, it is a test he is likely to pass. He has already proven that he can play darkness, that he can play romance, and that he can play a real person without imitation. Heathcliff asks for all three at once, and Elordi is ready for it.

Privacy, Photography, and the Man Behind the Roles

Elordi’s private life is the part of his story that he guards most fiercely. He has been linked to several high-profile partners, including Joey King, Zendaya, Kaia Gerber, and Olivia Jade Giannulli, and each relationship has been covered obsessively by the press. He has said very little about any of them, and he has made it clear that he does not want his personal life to be public. He is known for disliking interviews, for avoiding social media, and for speaking about fame with a frankness that is unusual for a young star. He has said that he finds the attention uncomfortable, and that he would rather be judged on his work than on his relationships. That attitude has made him a figure of fascination, because the less he says, the more people want to know, but it has also protected him. He has not been consumed by fame in the way that many young stars are, and he has kept his focus on the work.

He is also a serious film lover, and that love shapes his choices. He collects films, he watches classics, and he has spoken about his admiration for directors like Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader, and Sofia Coppola. He is interested in photography, and he has been photographed with film cameras, a hobby that reflects his interest in the craft of image-making. He lives between Los Angeles and Australia, and he returns home often, staying close to his family. His father is still a house painter, and Elordi has spoken about the pride he feels in his working-class background. He is not a star who has forgotten where he came from. He is a star who carries it with him, and that grounding is part of why his performances feel so real. He is a boy from Brisbane who loved films, and he is still that boy, even now that the whole world knows his name.

What Jacob Elordi’s Rise Means Now

Jacob Elordi is twenty-eight years old, and he has already done more than most actors do in a lifetime. He has been a teen idol, a television villain, a rock and roll legend, a doomed aristocrat, and a monster, and he has been convincing in all of them. He has worked with Sofia Coppola, Emerald Fennell, Guillermo del Toro, and Paul Schrader, directors who do not cast lightly, and he has earned their trust. He has done it without chasing fame, without courting the press, and without compromising on the roles he takes. His story is not finished, and his next chapter, as Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, will be the biggest test yet. But whatever happens next, he has already proven something important: that a young actor can become famous for the wrong reasons and still build a serious career, if he is willing to work hard, to choose carefully, and to refuse to be defined by the role that made him famous. Elordi refused, and the work proves it.

My Take:

What I admire most about Jacob Elordi is that he escaped. That sounds dramatic, but it is the right word. He became famous at twenty-one for playing Noah Flynn in The Kissing Booth, a handsome high school boyfriend in a Netflix romantic comedy, and that kind of fame is a trap. It is a trap because the audience loves you for one thing, the industry offers you that one thing again and again, and the money is very good, and the easiest choice in the world is to keep taking it. Elordi did not take it. He took Euphoria, and he played a violent, frightening young man. He took Priscilla, and he played Elvis Presley for Sofia Coppola. He took Saltburn, and he played a doomed aristocrat. He took Frankenstein, and he played a monster under prosthetics, with almost no dialogue. He is twenty-eight years old, and he has already built a career that looks like the work of an actor who has been serious for decades. That escape is the whole story, and it is the reason I think his career matters.

I keep thinking about The Kissing Booth, because it is the film that made him, and because it is also the film he has spent seven years running from. The film was a phenomenon, and Elordi, as Noah Flynn, became an instant teen idol. His face was everywhere, his name was trending, and teenage fans around the world knew who he was. He has said since that the experience was overwhelming, and that he was not prepared for it. I believe him, because he was twenty-one, and he had wanted to be an actor, not a celebrity, and the two things turned out to be very different. What impresses me is not that he was grateful for the opportunity, though he has said he was. It is that he understood, very quickly, that the opportunity was also a danger. He could have made three more Kissing Booth films, and then three more romantic comedies, and he could have been rich and famous and bored for the rest of his life. He chose not to. He chose Euphoria, and that choice changed everything.

Nate Jacobs is the role that proved he was serious, and it is the performance I would show to anyone who doubts him. Nate is a terrifying character: a star athlete, a handsome young man, and a violent, manipulative abuser who hides his cruelty behind charm. Elordi played him with a commitment that was frightening, and he did it in a series that was watched by millions of teenagers. That is a brave choice for a young actor who had just become a teen idol. He was not protecting his image. He was destroying it, deliberately, in order to be taken seriously. He has said that the role took a toll on him, that accessing Nate’s anger was difficult, and that he had to find a way to leave the character on set. I respect that honesty, because it shows that he understands the cost of playing darkness. He did not do it lightly. He did it because he knew it was the only way to be seen as an actor rather than a heartthrob, and it worked. After Euphoria, no one could say he was only a pretty face.

Priscilla is the performance that showed his range most clearly, because Elvis Presley is the hardest role in the world to play without becoming a caricature. Elordi did not imitate Elvis. He played him as a man, charming and loving and also controlling and distant, and the performance was praised by critics who had expected him to fail. Sofia Coppola chose him for the role, and that choice matters, because Coppola does not cast lightly. She saw something in him, a stillness, a sadness, and a physical presence that suited the part. He worked with a dialect coach, he studied Elvis’s voice and movements, and he gave a performance that was quiet, internal, and deeply felt. It was the opposite of what audiences expected from a young actor playing Elvis. They expected swagger. He gave them vulnerability, and the vulnerability was more interesting than the swagger could ever have been. That is the mark of an actor who thinks, not only an actor who performs.

Saltburn is the film that made him a star in a different way, and it is the one I find most fascinating. He played Felix Catton, the golden boy, the handsome, charming, effortlessly popular aristocrat who invites Oliver Quick to his family’s estate for the summer. The film was a sensation, shocking and funny and deeply unsettling, and Elordi’s performance was central to it. Felix seems perfect, and Elordi played him with a warmth that made the ending genuinely shocking. Audiences loved Felix, and they were devastated by what happened to him, and that reaction was a testament to Elordi’s skill. He made a character who could have been a caricature feel real, and he made the audience care about him. The film also made him a fashion icon, and his face was on magazine covers around the world. He handled that attention with the same privacy he had always shown, refusing to perform for the cameras when he was not working. That refusal is part of why directors trust him. He is not interested in being famous. He is interested in being good.

Frankenstein is the boldest choice he has made, and it is the one that convinces me his future is limitless. He played the Creature in Guillermo del Toro’s film, spending hours in prosthetics every day, speaking almost no dialogue, and communicating through his body and his eyes. It was the opposite of the handsome leading man roles that had made him famous, and it was the clearest proof yet that he was not afraid of disappearing into a character. He made the audience love a monster, and that is the hardest thing an actor can do. Del Toro had waited decades to make the film, and he trusted a twenty-eight-year-old to carry its emotional centre. That trust says everything about where Elordi stands. He is not a young star hoping for serious roles. He is a serious actor who happens to be young, and the industry’s best directors know it.

His privacy is the part of his story that I find most admirable, and also most understandable. He has been linked to several high-profile partners, and each relationship has been covered obsessively. He has said very little about any of them, and he has made it clear that he does not want his personal life to be public. He dislikes interviews, he avoids social media, and he speaks about fame with a frankness that is unusual for a star his age. He has said that he finds the attention uncomfortable, and that he would rather be judged on his work. I respect that, because fame at twenty-one is disorienting, and the pressure to share everything is enormous. Elordi has resisted that pressure, and he has kept his focus on the work. That resistance is a form of discipline, and it is one reason his performances are so good. He is not performing his life for the public. He is saving his energy for the roles, and the roles are better for it.

His love of film is the part of his story that gives me the most hope for his future. He is a serious film lover, a man who watches classics, who collects DVDs, and who admires directors like Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader. He has worked with Schrader on Oh, Canada, and with Coppola on Priscilla, and with del Toro on Frankenstein, and each of those collaborations was a choice. He is not taking roles for the money. He is taking roles to learn, to work with directors he admires, and to build a filmography that will last. That is the behaviour of an actor who thinks in decades, not in years, and it is rare in someone who is twenty-eight. Most young stars think about the next film. Elordi thinks about the career, and that long view is visible in every choice he makes.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North is the project that shows his connection to home, and I think it matters. It is an Australian story, based on Richard Flanagan’s Booker Prize-winning novel, about a surgeon who survives a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. Elordi played the lead, and he did it with a restraint and a depth that impressed critics. The role was personal, because it was Australian, and because it asked him to play a man shaped by war and by loss. He did not take the role to be famous. He took it because it was a story from his own country, and because it deserved to be told well. That loyalty to Australian stories, even now that he works in Hollywood, is part of who he is. He is a boy from Brisbane, and he has not forgotten it, even as his career has taken him around the world.

Wuthering Heights, in which he will play Heathcliff opposite Margot Robbie, is the role I am watching most closely, because it is the biggest test he has faced. Heathcliff is one of the great roles in literature, a character who is passionate, violent, and unforgettable, and Elordi is the actor Emerald Fennell chose after working with him on Saltburn. The film is one of the most anticipated of 2026, and it will show whether he can carry a classic literary adaptation on his own name. I think he can, because he has already proven that he can play darkness, that he can play romance, and that he can play a real person without imitation. Heathcliff asks for all three at once, and Elordi is ready for it. If the film succeeds, it will confirm what his recent work has already suggested: that he is not only a talented young actor, but one of the most important actors of his generation.

If I were recommending where to start with him, I would start with Euphoria, and watch Nate Jacobs, because it is the performance that defines him. Then I would watch Priscilla, and see how he plays a real person without imitating him. Then I would watch Saltburn, and see how he makes an audience love a character they should not love. Then I would watch Frankenstein, and see how he disappears into a monster and makes the monster human. Those four performances show you the range, and they show you why directors keep calling him. He is not one thing. He is many things, and he is good at all of them, and that is the rarest quality an actor can have at any age, let alone at twenty-eight.

The thing I will remember longest about Jacob Elordi is not any single role. It is the fact that he refused to be defined by the role that made him famous. The Kissing Booth could have been his whole career, and it would have been a comfortable career, and a rich one. He walked away from it, and he walked toward harder roles, darker roles, and roles that asked more of him. That is a brave choice for a young man, and it is a choice that most actors do not make. They take the easy road, and they wonder, years later, why they are not taken seriously. Elordi took the hard road, and he is taken seriously now, by the best directors in the world, because he earned it. If there is a lesson in his story for anyone reading this, it is that the role that makes you famous is not always the role that defines you, and that you have the power to choose what defines you, if you are willing to work for it. He was willing, and the work proves it.

There is one more thing I want to say, about his age, because it is easy to forget how young he is. He is twenty-eight years old. He has been famous for seven years, and he has already worked with some of the greatest directors alive. He has time, and he knows it, and he is using it well. He is not rushing. He is choosing carefully, and he is building a career that could last for decades. I think his best work is still ahead of him, and I think the films he makes in his thirties and forties will be even better than the ones he has made so far. That is an exciting prospect, and it is the reason I will keep watching, whatever comes next. The boy from Brisbane who loved old films is now making the films that other boys will love, and that is a wonderful circle to complete.

Frequently Asked Questions

How did Jacob Elordi become famous?

He became famous as Noah Flynn in The Kissing Booth in 2018, and then gained wider recognition as Nate Jacobs in Euphoria from 2019.

Is Jacob Elordi Australian?

Yes. He was born in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, and he has spoken with pride about his Australian and Basque heritage.

Did Jacob Elordi play Elvis Presley?

Yes. He played Elvis Presley in Priscilla in 2023, a film about Priscilla Presley’s life with the famous singer.

What is Jacob Elordi in Saltburn?

He played Felix Catton, a wealthy and charming university student, in the dark, stylish film Saltburn in 2023.

Is Jacob Elordi in Frankenstein?

Yes. He played the creature in a new adaptation of Frankenstein released in 2025.

What is Jacob Elordi’s next project?

He continues to work on ambitious films with respected directors, and his recent choices suggest a long career in serious cinema.