Jacob Elordi: Biography, Career, Net Worth and Life in 2026
Jacob Elordi moved to Los Angeles in 2017 at age 19 with his visa nearly expiring and very little money. While occasionally sleeping in his car and couch surfing at friends’ places, he went to auditions. He planned for one of them to be his last before going back to Australia. That audition was for Euphoria. He got the role. It changed everything.
That story matters because it reframes what his career actually is. He did not arrive in Hollywood via a family connection or a drama school pipeline. He arrived broke, on borrowed time, and made one audition count. The six years between that moment and his Academy Award nomination for Frankenstein in 2026 are the story of someone who understood exactly what kind of actor he wanted to be and made deliberately uncomfortable choices to get there.
Jacob Elordi Quick Profile 2026
| Full Name | Jacob Nathaniel Elordi |
| Date of Birth | June 26, 1997 |
| Age in 2026 | 28 years old (turns 29 on June 26, 2026) |
| Birthplace | Brisbane, Queensland, Australia |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Parents | Melissa Elordi (stay-at-home mother and school volunteer), John Elordi (housepainter) |
| Siblings | Youngest of four children. Three older siblings (names private). |
| Height | 6 ft 5 in (196 cm) |
| Education | Schooling in Brisbane; briefly Melbourne; acting school in Melbourne for one year before moving to US |
| Early Sports | Represented Victoria in rugby union and basketball. Member of under-16 national championship winning Victorian basketball team (2012). Back injury ended rugby career. |
| Acting Inspiration | Heath Ledger (especially as the Joker). Also inspired by Marlon Brando, Laurence Olivier, Daniel Day-Lewis, Christian Bale. |
| Moved to US | 2017, age 19, with visa nearly expired and little money |
| First US Job | Extra (redcoat) in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017) |
| Breakthrough | Noah Flynn in The Kissing Booth (Netflix, 2018). Woke up to millions of Instagram followers after midnight release. |
| Career-Defining TV | Nate Jacobs in Euphoria (HBO, 2019 to 2026). Season 3 premiered April 12, 2026. |
| Oscar Nomination | Best Supporting Actor for Frankenstein (Guillermo del Toro, 2025). First Academy Award nomination. |
| 2026 Film | Wuthering Heights (Emerald Fennell, Feb 13, 2026) as Heathcliff opposite Margot Robbie. $76.8M box office so far. |
| Upcoming 2026 | The Dog Stars (Ridley Scott). Release: August 28, 2026. |
| Brand Deals | Chanel (Bleu de Chanel fragrance), TAG Heuer watches |
| Role Declined | Superman (2025). Publicly said ‘That’s too much. That’s too dark for me.’ |
| Relationship Status | Private. No confirmed partner as of May 2026. |
| Net Worth (2026) | Estimated $5 million (Celebrity Net Worth; multiple sources consistent) |
Early Life: Brisbane, Sports, and a Revelation in a Drama Class
Jacob Nathaniel Elordi was born on June 26, 1997, in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. He is the youngest of four children. His father John worked as a housepainter and his mother Melissa was a stay-at-home mother who also volunteered at school. The household was working class and values-focused: discipline, respect, humility. Money was sometimes tight.
He was a genuinely talented junior athlete. He represented Victoria in both rugby union and basketball, and was a member of the under-16 national championship winning Victorian basketball team in 2012. The family had relocated to Melbourne in 2010 so that one of his sisters could attend the Australian Ballet School, and Jacob spent four years there before returning to Brisbane at 16 to finish secondary school.
Two things ended his sports career and started his acting one. A back injury during rugby removed one path. And at age 15, he read Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot in a drama class. He has described that moment in several interviews with unusual directness: acting became his church. His personality changed. He began reading biographies of the actors he admired, specifically Heath Ledger (the Joker in The Dark Knight was his first major inspiration), Marlon Brando, Laurence Olivier, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Christian Bale. He would emulate their behaviors off-screen as a form of study.
After finishing secondary school, he attended an acting school in Melbourne for one year before making the decision to move to the United States in 2017 at age 19 to pursue a professional acting career.
The Career: From Kissing Booth to Oscar Nomination
| Project | Year | Role / Notes |
| Project | Year | Role / Notes |
| Swinging Safari | 2018 | Rooster. First credited acting role. Australian comedy. |
| The Kissing Booth | 2018 | Noah Flynn. Netflix overnight sensation. Woke to millions of followers after midnight release. |
| The Kissing Booth 2 and 3 | 2020, 2021 | Noah Flynn. Franchise completed. Elordi openly dissatisfied with the rom-com trajectory. |
| Euphoria Season 1 and 2 | 2019, 2022 | Nate Jacobs. HBO. Auditioned while sleeping in his car. Career-defining pivot from heartthrob to serious actor. |
| 2-Hearts | 2020 | Supporting role. Romantic drama. |
| Oh, Canada | 2024 | Co-stars with Richard Gere and Uma Thurman. Director Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, First Reformed). |
| Priscilla | 2023 | Elvis Presley. Sofia Coppola film. Critics praised his restraint and physicality. BAFTA nom. |
| Saltburn | 2023 | Felix Catton. Emerald Fennell film with Barry Keoghan. BAFTA nom. Critics Choice Movie Award win. Cultural phenomenon. |
| The Narrow Road to the Deep North | 2025 | Lead in Australian miniseries. Two AACTA Awards. Based on Richard Flanagan’s Booker Prize-winning novel. |
| Frankenstein | 2025 | The Creature. Guillermo del Toro. Co-stars Oscar Isaac and Mia Goth. First Academy Award nomination (Best Supporting Actor). |
| Wuthering Heights | 2026 | Heathcliff. Emerald Fennell. Margot Robbie as Catherine. Music by Charli XCX. Released Feb 13, 2026. $76.8M global box office. |
| Euphoria Season 3 | 2026 | Nate Jacobs. HBO. Premiered April 12, 2026. |
| The Dog Stars | 2026 | Lead. Ridley Scott science fiction film. Release: August 28, 2026. |
Phase One: The Kissing Booth and the Price of Overnight Fame
The Kissing Booth arrived on Netflix at midnight on May 11, 2018. Jacob Elordi woke up to millions of new Instagram followers. He was 20 years old and had become famous essentially overnight for playing Noah Flynn, a charming, brooding, romantic bad boy. The film was a massive Netflix hit and produced two sequels.
He has since been publicly candid about how he felt about that period. He found the rom-com trajectory uncomfortable, both creatively and personally. The attention was disorienting. The roles it brought were narrow. He was determined not to become the thing that The Kissing Booth suggested he might be.
Phase Two: Euphoria and the Career Pivot That Mattered
The audition for Euphoria happened while Elordi was still surviving on a thinning budget with his visa timeline pressing in. He auditioned, got the role of Nate Jacobs, and the character he was given was the opposite of Noah Flynn in almost every dimension. Nate Jacobs is described by Elordi himself as a narcissist and a sociopath, a troubled high school football player with an abusive father whose behavior drives much of the show’s darkest material.
Playing Nate required moral and psychological inhabitation that romantic lead work does not. The critical response noted the range it demonstrated. It repositioned him in the industry’s eyes before Saltburn and Priscilla would complete the repositioning at the film level.
Phase Three: Saltburn, Priscilla, and the Turn Toward Prestige
In 2023, two films arrived within months of each other that together constituted the most significant critical moment of his career to that point. Priscilla, directed by Sofia Coppola, cast him as Elvis Presley, with the entire film told from Priscilla Presley’s perspective. His Elvis was not a performance about charisma. It was a performance about power, emotional manipulation, and the specific kind of damage done by proximity to a cultural icon. The BAFTA nomination for that role was the first major awards recognition of his film career.
Saltburn, also from 2023, came from Emerald Fennell, the director of Promising Young Woman. He played Felix Catton, an aristocratic Oxford student whose summer at his family’s estate Saltburn becomes something increasingly dangerous. Barry Keoghan’s performance as the obsessed classmate drove most of the conversation, but Elordi’s work as the object of that obsession, maintaining a complex blend of genuine warmth and oblivious privilege, earned him the Critics’ Choice Movie Award and a second BAFTA nomination.
2025: Frankenstein, The Narrow Road, and the Oscar Nomination
Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, released in 2025, was the kind of project that defines a career phase. Cast as the Creature alongside Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein and Mia Goth as Elizabeth, Elordi was asked to perform one of literature’s most demanding characters from beneath layers of physical transformation and prosthetics while conveying genuine emotional complexity. The Academy nominated him for Best Supporting Actor. It was his first Oscar nomination. He did not win, but the nomination confirmed what Saltburn and Priscilla had suggested: the industry now regarded him as an actor capable of carrying prestige dramatic work at the highest level.
That same year, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, an Australian miniseries based on Richard Flanagan’s Booker Prize-winning novel about prisoners of war on the Burma-Thailand Railway, earned him two AACTA Awards, Australia’s equivalent of the Oscars. Three Australian industry honors in a year that also included an American Oscar nomination is a level of awards traction that very few actors in their late twenties achieve.
2026: Wuthering Heights, Euphoria Season 3, The Dog Stars
On February 13, 2026, Wuthering Heights was released. Emerald Fennell, working with Elordi for the second time after Saltburn, cast him as Heathcliff opposite Margot Robbie’s Catherine Earnshaw. The film’s soundtrack was composed by Charli XCX. By May 2026, the film had grossed $76.8 million at the global box office. Critics were divided, with the casting of the traditionally dark-complexioned Heathcliff drawing significant commentary, to which Elordi responded publicly by saying his only consideration was serving his director’s artistic vision and the truth of the screenplay.
Euphoria Season 3 premiered on HBO on April 12, 2026, with Elordi returning as Nate Jacobs in what is described as the show’s final season. And on August 28, 2026, The Dog Stars, a Ridley Scott science fiction film, is scheduled for release.
| THE SUPERMAN DECISION In 2025, Jacob Elordi was approached to read for the lead role in a new Superman project. He publicly declined, saying: ‘They asked me to read for Superman. That was immediately, No, thank you. That’s too much. That’s too dark for me.’ The comment was candid to the point that he added his agent would be frustrated with him for saying it so directly. The decision was entirely consistent with a career trajectory that has systematically avoided franchise superhero work in favor of character-driven dramatic projects. |
Family Background and Personal Life
Jacob Elordi’s father John worked as a housepainter throughout his childhood. His mother Melissa was a stay-at-home parent who also volunteered at his school. He is the youngest of four children. The family moved between Brisbane and Melbourne during his school years for reasons connected to a sibling’s education at the Australian Ballet School.
He has described his upbringing as instilling values of discipline and humility that he considers directly relevant to how he approaches acting. He reads widely, including actors’ biographies and literary source material for roles. He has been in public relationships with Zendaya (2019 to 2020), Kaia Gerber (2020 to 2023), and Olivia Jade (briefly reported in 2020). As of 2026, he has not confirmed any relationship.
He trained as a boxer during his acting career, is a TAG Heuer and Chanel brand ambassador, and by his own account finds celebrity culture uncomfortable. He has said he prefers to talk about craft and career rather than his personal life.
Net Worth of Jacob Elordi in 2026
Jacob Elordi’s net worth in 2026 is estimated at $5 million by Celebrity Net Worth, consistent with multiple other sources. That figure reflects a career in which he has consistently prioritized artistic credibility over commercial paychecks. He turned down a Superman role. He avoided franchise work. He took prestige independent films and prestige television over higher-grossing blockbusters.
His income comes from acting fees across The Kissing Booth franchise, Euphoria seasons, Saltburn, Priscilla, Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights, and the upcoming The Dog Stars, alongside brand deal income from Chanel and TAG Heuer. He is not yet in the category of actors who command $20 million per film fees, but his trajectory following an Oscar nomination and consistent BAFTA recognition suggests that is where he is heading. The Ridley Scott project, when released in August 2026, will be a significant test of his box office drawing power as a lead.
FAQs
How old is Jacob Elordi in 2026?
Jacob Elordi is 28 years old in 2026, born June 26, 1997 in Brisbane. He turns 29 on June 26, 2026.
Did Jacob Elordi get an Oscar nomination?
Yes. He was nominated for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing the Creature in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein (2025), his first ever Oscar nomination.
What is Jacob Elordi doing in 2026?
Wuthering Heights released February 13, 2026 with Margot Robbie. Euphoria Season 3 premiered April 12, 2026 on HBO. The Dog Stars (Ridley Scott) releases August 28, 2026.
Why did Jacob Elordi decline Superman?
In 2025 he was asked to audition for Superman and immediately said no. His public explanation: ‘That’s too much. That’s too dark for me.’ Consistent with his pattern of avoiding franchise superhero work.
Who has Jacob Elordi dated?
Public relationships include Zendaya (2019 to 2020), Kaia Gerber (2020 to 2023), and briefly Olivia Jade. As of May 2026, no confirmed relationship.
How did Jacob Elordi get cast in Euphoria?
He auditioned while nearly broke in LA, occasionally sleeping in his car. He had planned it as his last audition before returning to Australia. He got the role of Nate Jacobs and stayed.
Story Timeline
The through-line of Jacob Elordi’s career, from the moment he decided Kissing Booth was not where he wanted to stay to the moment he turned down Superman, is the consistent application of a single principle: he would rather be good than famous. He was already famous at 20. He spent the next eight years trying to become good.
The Oscar nomination for Frankenstein is the formal industry acknowledgment that the strategy worked. At 28, with Wuthering Heights open, Euphoria’s final season airing, and Ridley Scott next, Jacob Elordi is in the strongest critical position of his career. The question is not whether he belongs in the conversation. He is already in it.
