Jacob Elordi

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, Spain; he migrated 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.