Jacob Elordi is an Australian actor who has gone from a Brisbane schoolboy with a passion for rugby to one of the most talked-about performers in Hollywood. He was born on 26 June 1997, which makes him 29 years old as of October 2026. Over the past year he has earned his first Oscar nomination, finished a long run on HBO’s Euphoria, and starred in one of the biggest films of the year. This guide covers his background, his best-known roles, his awards, his recent projects and the news around him, with every fact checked against reliable sources.
Who Is Jacob Elordi?
Jacob Nathaniel Elordi was born in Brisbane, Queensland, to Melissa Elordi, a stay-at-home mother and school volunteer, and John Elordi, a house painter. His father was born in the Basque Country in Spain and moved to Australia at the age of eight, which gives Elordi a strong family link to Spain that he has spoken about in interviews. He is the youngest of four children and grew up in a working-class household. At 6 feet 5 inches (about 1.96 metres), he is also well known for his height, which critics and fans mention almost as often as his acting.
Early Life and Education
Elordi spent his first twelve years in Brisbane. In 2010 the family moved to Melbourne for four years because one of his sisters was studying at the Australian Ballet School, and he returned to Brisbane in 2013 to finish high school. He attended two all-boys Catholic schools, St Kevin’s College in Melbourne and St Joseph’s College, Nudgee, in Brisbane, and he graduated in 2015.
Sport came first. He played junior rugby union and basketball at a high level, representing Victoria in both and winning an under-16 national basketball title with his state team in 2012. At the same time he was performing in school musicals from the age of twelve, including Seussical and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and he later took acting classes. A back injury from a rugby match pushed him away from sport and toward the stage, and he has named Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight as an early inspiration. After a year at an acting school in Melbourne, he moved to the United States in 2017 at the age of 19.
From Background Extra to Netflix Fame
His first time on a Hollywood set was as an uncredited extra in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales in 2017, where he reportedly played one of the redcoat soldiers. His first real acting role came the following year in the Australian comedy Swinging Safari. That same year, in May 2018, Netflix released The Kissing Booth, in which he played the bad-boy love interest Noah Flynn opposite Joey King. Critics were not kind to the film, but it became one of Netflix’s most-watched titles of 2018 and made Elordi famous almost overnight. He returned for two sequels, released in 2020 and 2021.
Elordi has since been open about how he felt about those films. In a 2023 interview he said he had not wanted to make them and saw them as a stepping stone toward working in the United States. He has also spoken about the discomfort of being treated mainly as an object of attention because of the franchise.
How Euphoria Changed His Career
After the first Kissing Booth film, Elordi moved to Los Angeles, where money was tight. By his own account he slept in his car and on friends’ couches at times, and his visa was close to expiring when he auditioned for Sam Levinson’s HBO series Euphoria, planning to head home if it did not work out. He won the role of Nate Jacobs, a troubled high school football player with an abusive father, and played him from the pilot in 2019. Elordi has described the character as a narcissist, and critics have often called him an antihero. The part is widely seen as his breakout, and it showed that he could play dark, complicated men.
The Roles That Made Him a Serious Actor
Elordi’s reputation changed through a run of roles from 2023 onward. In Priscilla, directed by Sofia Coppola, he played Elvis Presley opposite Cailee Spaeny, and the film premiered to a positive response at the Venice Film Festival. Critics praised his portrayal of Elvis’s charm and controlling anger, and the performance was often compared with Austin Butler’s in the 2022 film Elvis. In the same year he starred in Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn as Felix Catton, a wealthy Oxford student, and the performance earned him a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
He hosted Saturday Night Live in January 2024, though critics felt the episode leaned too heavily on jokes about his looks. Later that year he appeared in Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada, where he played the younger version of Richard Gere’s character, and in the period drama On Swift Horses, where he played a gambler in 1950s Las Vegas and earned some of the warmest reviews of his career up to that point. In 2025 he took the lead in the miniseries The Narrow Road to the Deep North, playing Dorrigo Evans, and that work later won him an AACTA Award in Australia and a Golden Globe nomination.
Frankenstein, the Oscar Nomination and Awards Season
His biggest critical success so far is Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, released by Netflix in 2025 after a world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. Elordi played the Creature, and the role demanded hours in the makeup chair each day along with a new way of moving. He trained in butoh, a form of Japanese dance theatre, to give the stitched-together body its physical character, and del Toro’s first visual reference for the look was a photograph of the musician Iggy Pop.
The performance earned him a Critics’ Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor in January 2026, his first major trophy, along with Golden Globe, BAFTA and Oscar nominations. Elordi attended the Academy Awards on 15 March 2026 with his mother as his date, keeping a promise he had made to her as a teenager. He did not win the Oscar, but Frankenstein took home three awards that night, for production design, costume design, and makeup and hairstyling. Earlier in 2026 he also won three AACTA Awards in Australia, including Best Supporting Actor for Frankenstein and Best Lead Actor in a Television Drama for The Narrow Road to the Deep North.
Wuthering Heights: His Biggest Box Office Hit
In February 2026 Elordi starred as Heathcliff opposite Margot Robbie in Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, released in the United States and the United Kingdom on 13 February. The film grossed about $288 million worldwide, which made it the first major commercial success of his career. It also drew debate, because Heathcliff is described in Emily Brontë’s novel as a person of colour, and many people questioned the casting. Elordi answered that the film was Fennell’s own interpretation and that his job was to serve the director’s vision and the screenplay.
The End of Euphoria
Elordi returned as Nate Jacobs for the third and final season of Euphoria, which began airing in April 2026. Nate’s story ended in episode seven, which aired on 24 May, when he was buried alive by loan sharks and died after a rattlesnake bite. Elordi said filming inside the coffin was oddly peaceful and called the exit a fitting end for a character who had made so many dark choices. Reviews of the season were mixed, with some critics feeling Nate was underused, yet viewership was strong, with the season averaging about 25 million viewers, up 17 percent from season two.
The Dog Stars and Upcoming Projects
His most recent release is Ridley Scott’s post-apocalyptic thriller talented screen and stage performers like The Dog Stars, which reached cinemas on 28 August 2026. Elordi plays Hig, a pilot who lost his wife in a pandemic, in a role that Paul Mescal was originally set to play. Critics were divided, and the film had a weak box office run, so it has not matched the success of Wuthering Heights. Looking ahead, Elordi is attached to Outer Dark, an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel with Lily-Rose Depp and director László Nemes, which was reported to be in pre-production earlier this year. Release dates for that project were not confirmed at the time of writing.
Brand Work, Style and Public Image
Beyond acting, Elordi became the face of Hugo Boss’s Boss The Scent fragrance in January 2022 and later worked with TAG Heuer as a brand ambassador. Fashion media have kept a close eye on his appearance as well, and in early October 2026 one outlet described his disconnected goatee as a talking point in men’s grooming.
Relationships and Recent News
Elordi’s romantic life has drawn heavy attention. He has previously been linked with Joey King, Zendaya, Kaia Gerber and Olivia Jade, and in 2026 he has been widely reported to be dating Kendall Jenner, with rumours beginning around Coachella in April. In early October 2026 he was filmed asking photographers in Paris to stop using flashes and let him and Jenner walk back to their hotel, which led to a wave of online commentary. Around the same time, a viral video claiming Zendaya kissed him at a concert spread online, but a fact-check found that the footage did not clearly show Zendaya and that the related claim about Tom Holland was contradicted by his Instagram activity. As with all celebrity news, details about private lives can change quickly, so it is best to rely on direct statements from the people involved.
Frequently Asked Questions About Jacob Elordi
How old is Jacob Elordi? He was born on 26 June 1997, so he is 29 years old as of October 2026.
Where is Jacob Elordi from? He was born in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, and has Basque heritage through his father.
How tall is Jacob Elordi? He is 6 feet 5 inches, or about 1.96 metres, tall.
What is Jacob Elordi best known for? He is best known for The Kissing Booth films, his role as Nate Jacobs in Euphoria, and his performances in Saltburn, Priscilla, Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights.
Did Jacob Elordi win an Oscar? No. He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Frankenstein at the 2026 Academy Awards but did not win. He did win a Critics’ Choice Award for the same role.
Is Euphoria over? Season three, which aired in 2026, was described as the final season, and Elordi’s character died in the penultimate episode.
Final Thoughts
Jacob Elordi’s career shows how quickly an actor can move past a first label. He began as a teen-film heartthrob, and within a few years he had an Oscar nomination, a major box office hit and a body of work that critics take seriously. His recent films have had uneven results, but his range and his willingness to take unusual roles suggest his career is still developing, so his next projects will be worth following.
Disclaimer: This article is for general information and entertainment only. It is based on publicly available information as of 3 October 2026, and details such as box office figures, release dates, awards and personal relationships may change or be updated after publication. Reports about private lives are based on media coverage and are not confirmed unless stated by the people involved. This site is not affiliated with Jacob Elordi, his representatives or any studio mentioned.
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