The rise and rise of Jacob Elordi: How a Brisbane schoolboy catapulted up the Hollywood ladder

When Jacob Elordi's name was included in the list of Golden Globe nominees this week, he found himself propelled to a level of stardom he could have only dreamed of while growing up in Brisbane.

At 28, Elordi has now joined a small list of Aussie actors to scale the heights of Hollywood, where he has received almost as much attention for his girlfriends, which have included the likes of Joey King, Zendaya and Kaia Gerber.

Let's take a look at his life and career, and how this dashing Aussie went from very humble beginnings to the brink of mega stardom in just 10 years.

Jacob Elordi was born in Brisbane on June 16, 1997. His mother Melissa was a stay-at-home mum who volunteered at his school, while his father John was a painter.

Elordi's early years were spent in the Queensland city's northern suburbs.

While his upbringing is described as working class, he has fond memories of his childhood and often gushes about his parents in interviews.

Earlier this year he told WSJ Magazine he hoped to emulate his own upbringing when he has children of his own one day.

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"My whole dream is to facilitate a childhood like the one that I had," he said. "It would just make me the happiest person in the world."

In the same interview, he described his father as 'inspirational' and a 'legend', and said his mother was 'an angel'.

"She's the greatest person I've ever met," he said.

When Elordi was 12, the family moved to Melbourne so his sister could attend the Australian Ballet School, before they returned to Brisbane four years later.

As a teen, Elordi excelled at sport, especially basketball and rugby union, thanks to his hulking 197cm frame, but also began dabbling in acting, which saw him bullied at school.

"From the moment I did a play, I was called gay at school," he told GQ in 2022.

"But I had this abundance of confidence in myself. Because I could do both: I was quite good at sport and I think I was quite good at theatre.

"I never was worried that my peers would think that I was less than a man."

But a severe rugby injury at 16 ended his football dreams. He told Men's Health in 2021 he went in for a tackle and broke a bone in his back.

Until then, he juggled sport and theatre. His injury meant he could concentrate on the latter, so after leaving school, he took his mother's advice and started pursuing acting as a career.

His first credited roles were in the Australian short films Carpe Liam and Max & Iosefa.

Next, he won a role in the 2018 Aussie film Swinging Safari, which starred Guy Pearce and Kylie Minogue.

He moved back to Melbourne to attend drama school but was kicked out for breaking rules about auditioning while enrolled. But just a week later, his life would change forever.

Big break

It was Elordi's 104th audition tape that won him the role of hunky Noah Flynn in the Netflix film The Kissing Booth.

Filming took place in Los Angeles and Cape Town, South Africa, between January and April 2017.

The film was released on May 18, 2018, and Elordi became a star overnight.

He told GQ he went to bed a normal person and woke up the following day to find his personal Instagram account had four million new followers.

"I had to go through and delete my high school pictures because that was the Instagram that I used for my life," he said.

"I wish people could understand how drastic that change was."

Despite starring in what would become one of Netflix's most-watched shows of the year, Elordi was broke and wound up couch surfing while waiting for his next big break.

The Euphoria effect

After he finished filming The Kissing Booth, Elordi found himself back in LA with no job and nowhere to live.

With only a few hundred dollars to his name, he would sleep on a friend's couch or in his parked car.

He was helping a friend do an audition tape for a new TV show, Euphoria, when he decided to do one himself and won a starring role as troubled high school footballer Nate Jacobs.

He was still homeless when filming of the pilot began, so a producer got him a room at a West Hollywood hotel.

The show was a hit when it first aired in 2019. Elordi will return when the new series airs in April 2026.

The actor went on to film two sequels of the film that made him a star, The Kissing Booth 2, and The Kissing Booth 3.

But he came under fire when he bagged the franchise in the press, including in a 2023 interview with GQ.

"I didn't want to make those movies before I made those movies," he said.

"Those movies are ridiculous. They're not universal. They're an escape."

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In 2024, Elordi also found himself in hot water when he was accused of assaulting a producer from The Kyle and Jackie O Show who asked him for his bath water to give to Jackie.

Playing Elvis

After appearing in a string of films and TV series, Elordi was handpicked to play the King of rock 'n' roll, Elvis Presley, in the 2023 biopic Priscilla.

The film's director Sofia Coppola met Elordi for the first time at a restaurant, where she saw his charisma on display.

"He has an effect on women that I imagine was similar to Elvis," she told GQ in 2023.

After winning the role, he threw himself into preparations, including getting Presley's distinctive drawl just right.

"[Priscilla] said I got the voice right," Elordi said, "which was everything I needed to get."

The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and was considered a critical and box office success.

Critical acclaim

Elordi received widespread critical acclaim for playing Elvis – and there was more to come.

That same year, he appeared in Saltburn, which earned him a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

He followed this with roles in Oh, Canada, On Swift Horses and The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

His most recent film, Frankenstein, had its premiere at this year's Venice Film Festival and just landed him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role.

He is also set to star opposite another Aussie Margot Robbie, in the new adaptation of Wuthering Heights, which will be released early next year.

Price of stardom

Elordi said he almost quit acting when he first became famous.

"[That] might sound quite sensitive and dramatic, but I am sensitive and I'm very dramatic," he told GQ in 2022, while recalling the first time he was photographed by paparazzi.

"I hated being a character to the public. I felt so far from myself

"It felt like, all of a sudden, I was a poster. Like I was a billboard... for sale. Then my brain went through the wringer. It creates a very paranoid way of living."

Personal life

Elordi's personal life has garnered almost as much attention as his acting.

He was first linked to his The Kissing Booth co-star Joey King.

She told Seventeen she realised she had feelings for her co-star soon after filming began in January 2017.

"After the first month, I was like, 'Hmm, I think I like him'," she said.

By April, she was showing up on his Instagram account, while she first shared a photo of him in June. By August, they were red-carpet official.

The relationship continued into the next year. They shared a kiss while promoting the film ahead of its May 2018 release, and were pictured again in August.

But by November 2018, reports emerged the two had split.

King alluded to the end of the relationship in interviews in 2019, by which time the sequel had been announced.

Elordi was linked to model Cari Flowers in mid-2019 but the relationship was short-lived and by August of that year, he was rumoured to be dating Zendaya – his Euphoria co-star.

The two were first spotted holidaying together in Greece, with a source later confirming to E! News they were an item.

"Jacob and Zendaya have been seeing each other for months now," the outlet reported.

"They have been inseparable since last summer. Jacob has met Zendaya's family, and everyone adores him."

In November that year, Zendaya accompanied Elordi to Australia and they attended the GQ Awards together.

The relationship continued into 2020, with multiple sightings of the pair.

While a split was never confirmed, Elordi was spotted on a dinner date with Kaia Gerber on September 1, 2020, two days before the model turned 19.

They continued dating for over a year, with Gerber at times speaking about her beau in interviews.

They also appeared on her Instagram account and on red carpets, including at the Academy Museum Of Motion Pictures Opening in September 2021, before apparently calling it quits by November. 

The following month, Elordi was linked to Olivia Jade Giannulli, the daughter of Full House star Lori Loughlin and her now estranged husband Mossimo Giannulli.

The couple reportedly split in 2022 before getting back together.

People reported they called it quits again in August 2025.

More recently, Elordi has been linked with Kristen Kiehnle, a model and former college volleyball player, but there were also rumours he was dating Priscilla co-star Cailee Spaeny, who played the title role.

The rumour stemmed from him using a photo of the pair singing karaoke together as the wallpaper on his phone.

Spaeny addressed the rumour during a December 9 appearance on the US Today show.

"He came to London, and I was in town. The only way to celebrate anything is a night of karaoke," she said, adding he was a "dear friend".

We might have to wait and see who Elordi takes as his date to the 2026 Golden Globes Awards on January 11.

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Title: The rise and rise of Jacob Elordi: How a Brisbane schoolboy catapulted up the Hollywood ladder
Sourced From: celebrity.nine.com.au/latest/jacob-elordi-life-career-rise-to-fame-everything-to-know-explainer/4c3a9b81-8731-45ee-9238-3e38dc999618
Published Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2025 04:12:00 GMT