When picturing Frankenstein’s monster you don’t necessary imagine Hollywood hunk Jacob Elordi.
After growing up a theatre kid, the Australian star, 28, moved to Hollywood when he was just a teenager to pursue his acting career.
Born in 1997 in Brisbane in Australia, Jacob comes from a close-knit family as the youngest of four children with three elder sisters.
Jacob caught the acting bug early, and by 2017, not yet 20, he garnered his first taste of the spotlight when he played an extra in Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, taking the uncredited role of a Saint Martin’s Marine.
His breakthrough role came when he starred as teen heart throb in the 2018 franchise The Kissing Booth, yet Jacob has gone on to challenge himself in a range of contrasting roles.
From the high school toxic love interest in HBO’s Euphoria, to stepping into the shoes of the legendary musician Elvis Presely in Sofia Coppola’s biological drama Priscilla.
Meanwhile his role as posh English student Felix Catton in Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn earned him a BAFTA nomination and propelled him into a whole new audience.
Most recently he has taken on the role of the Creature in Guillermo Del Toro’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s 1818 gothic novel.
Speaking about the role he said: ‘The creature on screen is the purest form of myself. He is more me than I am as a performer. If you can find yourself in a character that’s a really beautiful thing that can happen, and I am only realising it now in hindsight.’
So how did Jacob carve out his career- from teen heart throb to global star?
From stereotypical romcom love interest to a BAFTA nominee: How Jacob Elordi transitioned from teen heartthrob to Frankenstein’s monster as he takes on his most challenging role to date
The Australian actor, 28, has taken on the role of the Creature in Guillermo Del Toro ‘s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s 1818 gothic novel (pictured)
The Kissing Booth – 2018
The Kissing Booth was Jacob’s second feature film role and – thanks to record-breaking binging by fans – he soon became a household name.
In the trilogy he portrayed Harvard-bound jock Noah Flynn, the long-term crush of late-blooming teenager Elle Evans (Joey King) who has never been kissed.
Elle decides to run a kissing booth at her high school’s Spring Carnival, and sparks fly when she finds herself locking lips with Noah.
In a twist, Noah happens to be the older brother of her best friend Lee (Joel Courtney), and her budding romance puts their friendship in jeopardy.
The on-screen romance also translated to off-screen as Jacob and Joey began dating after meeting on the set in January 2017.
They later called it quits by November the following year but still went on to film The Kissing Booth 2 and 3.
However it seems Jacob was keen for the role not to pigeon hole him as a one trick pony love interest.
In 2023 in an interview with GQ Men of the Year he made disparaging remarks about the franchise explaining: ‘I didn’t want to make those movies before I made those movies.
‘Those movies are ridiculous. They’re not universal. They’re an escape.’
Fans of the film went on to slam the star online, calling him ‘ungrateful’ and ‘disrespectful’ to his former colleagues.
‘Jacob Elordi needs to understand that when you c**p on a project like he has, he’s also crapping on his co-stars, the creators, and especially the fans,’ one user wrote.
He later attempted to rectify his comments telling Variety: ‘I’m incredibly grateful to everybody in it.’
The Kissing Booth was Jacob’s second feature film role and – thanks to record-breaking binging by fans – he soon became a household name
However it seems Jacob was keen for the role not to pigeon hole him as a one trick pony love interest he later said of the film ‘Those movies are ridiculous’
Euphoria – 2019
After teen rom com, Jacob made sure to sink his teeth into something slightly grittier as he bagged a role in HBO’s Euphoria alongside Zendaya and Sydney Sweeney.
He played the toxic and violent sociopath Nate Jacobs, a troubled high school football player with an abusive father.
The star’s performance was hailed by critics who regularly singled out the Aussie as one of the show’s strongest performers.
Propelled to global fame his American accent is so on-point that fans were left shocked discover he’s actually Australian.
Jacob once again stirred up tabloid intrigue when he began dating his co-star Zendaya though the pair never confirmed the romance ‘on the record’.
With the second series released in 2022, Jacob went on to confess he was left feeling ‘disenfranchised and directionless’ after filming wrapped.
He told Interview Magazine: ‘Post-Euphoria, I often feel disenfranchised and directionless.
‘I find it hard a lot of the time to stay motivated and this idea of “celebrity.” It makes it hard to keep finding interest and truth in the work,’ the young heartthrob added.
The star recently filmed season three of the show despite having limited time to prep for the role.
Speaking about his love for the character he told Entertainment Weekly: ‘I love him. I act to understand a different experience, to express an experience that’s different to my own.
‘Playing him taught me a lot about empathy and patience, which is strange with a character like that.’
The star’s performance in Euphoria was hailed by critics who regularly singled out the Aussie as one of the show’s strongest performers (pictured with his co-star Alexa Demie)
Saltburn – 2023
By 2023 Jacob had firmly positioned himself as Hollywood’s hottest new star and by the end of the year his name was on everybody’s lips.
Starring in Emerald Fennell’s psychological thriller Saltburn alongside Barry Keoghan the film got millions of viewers talking, with the bathtub scene going viral.
Brands even leaned into the Saltburn discord with Jacob Elordi bathwater scented candles for sale on Etsy, while coffee brand Grind coined the tag line ‘Our pods disappear faster than Jacob Elordi’s bathwater’.
Jacob stars as Felix Catton, Oliver Quick’s (Barry) upper-class friend at Oxford university.
As Oliver struggles to fit in with the super wealthy crowd that study at the elite university, Felix soon takes him under his wing.
Sought-after Felix eventually invites down on his luck Oliver to stay at his illustrious Saltburn mansion for the Summer, igniting a season of eccentricity, partying and chaos – as well as an obsession from the latter to the former.
Jacob and Barry also struck up a firm friendship in real life, with the Australian referring to his Irish co-star as ‘pure electricity'(pictured at the premiere in November 2023)
Jacob and Barry also struck up a firm friendship in real life, with the Australian referring to his Irish co-star as ‘pure electricity’.
In one interview with Vogue, the chat ended with the pair grinning at each other and Jacob telling Barry: ‘You’re a really talented, handsome guy’, leaving the star blushing.
In pictures from the Saltburn premiere, the duo were practically giddy around each other – even pictured jokingly gazing into to one another’s eyes.
The film earned Jacob his first major award season nomination as he was nominated for the EE Rising Star prize at the 2024 BAFTAs.
He was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor, but was beaten by Robert Downey Jr’s performance in Oppenheimer.
Starring in Emerald Fennell’s psychological thriller Saltburn alongside Barry Keoghan the film got millions of viewers talking, with the bathtub scene going viral
Brands even leaned into the Saltburn discord with the release of a Jacob Elordi bathwater scented candle
Priscilla – 2024
After Austin Butler embodied the King of Rock n Roll for the Elvis biopic in 2022, it was perhaps a brave move for Jacob to also step into the role for Priscilla.
The film, written and directed by Sofia Coppola, told Priscilla Presley’s side of the story of her life with the musician after he started romancing her when she was a young girl.
When it came to finding the young man who could portray Elvis, the director knew it would be hard to find anyone who could come close to his incredible good looks and charisma.
But in the end, it was Jacob’s own charisma that helped land him the role.
‘I thought nobody was gonna look quite like Elvis, but Jacob has that same type of magnetism. He’s so charismatic, and girls go crazy around him, so I knew he could pull off playing this type of romantic icon,’ Sofia revealed.
Offering an insight into how he prepared himself for becoming Elvis, Jacob said: ‘I have a deep voice. I think I’ve heard every recorded word that Elvis Presley has ever said and I kind of just have it on my brain.’
Addressing the late singer’s mannerisms, he added: ‘Yeah, when you watch him move and speak, there’s an energy that kind of comes from sort of deep, deep inside him, so I was just trying to constantly — because I’m a little bit more gawky and awkward than he is, so I was trying to find that charisma in your hips.’
The film, written and directed by Sofia Coppola, told Priscilla Presley’s side of the story of her life with the musician after he started romancing her when she was a young girl
Revealing how he prepared himself for the role, he said: ‘I have a deep voice. I think I’ve heard every recorded word that Elvis Presley has ever said and I kind of just have it on my brain’
The Narrow Road to the Deep North – 2025
In another genre shift Jacob starred as Lieutenant-Colonel Dorrigo Evans in the Prime Video series The Narrow Road to the Deep South.
Based on the 2013 novel by Richard Flanagan, the series was set in Australia, against the ‘shadows of World War II’ following how his brief love affair with Amy Mulvaney (Odessa Young) shaped his whole life.
The critically acclaimed show secured an impressive 100 per cent score on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics branding the drama a ‘powerful’ and ‘gritty’ watch.
Jacob previously told The Guardian that the cast involved in the prisoner of war storyline underwent a gruelling six-week boot camp to replicate the bodies of the emaciated imprisoned soldiers of the era.
Reflecting on the experience, he told the publication: ‘We were all in it together, so there was this great overwhelming amount of love in the whole process.
He continued: ‘It was incredibly challenging but deeply necessary, of course… because nobody wanted to phone that in or make a mockery of it.’
In another genre shift Jacob starred as Lieutenant-Colonel Dorrigo Evans in the Prime Video series The Narrow Road to the Deep South
Frankenstein – 2025
In his most recent project Jacob has been transformed into the Creature in the Guillermo del Toro Frankenstein remake which hit Netflix on November 7.
There’s action shots of Jacob, hulking at 6ft5in within a cloak, fighting several men aboard a clipper ship.
The first glimpse of Jacob’s transformation was revealed in the trailer as it showed the moment he is revived by Dr Frankenstein’s electrical experiment.
Action shots also showed the towering star hidden under a cloak while fighting several men aboard a clipper ship, while another menacing shot saw him standing on a snowy landscape in the distance.
Jacob scored the plum part of the Monster after Andrew Garfield, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Doug Jones were previously attached to star.
He was approached by Guillermo to take the role just nine weeks before the cameras started rolling, after Andrew dropped out at the last minute due to scheduling issues.
Speaking about coming onboard, Jacob said: ‘I was finishing The Narrow Road To The Deep North so I had about three or four weeks only before we started.
‘It presented itself as a monumental task but as Guillermo said the banquet was already there and everyone was already eating.’
He continued: ‘I was drawn to this role because it’s a vessel that I could put every part of myself into. Everything from the moment I was born to being with you here today, that’s all in it in many ways.
‘The creature on screen is the purest form of myself. He is more me than I am as a performer. If you can find yourself in a character that’s a really beautiful thing that can happen, and I am only realising it now in hindsight.’
The Euphoria star previously revealed that he had decided to ‘go Yorkshire’ with the accent for his portrayal.
He told the Daily Mail in August: ‘Yes, the accent is Yorkshire – that’s a great spot. David Bradley who plays the blind man in the film is from that part of the world, and when the creature starts to speak he learns from the blind man. So there are bits and bobs of Yorkshire in the way he speaks.’
In his most recent project Jacob has been transformed into the Creature in the Guillermo del Toro Frankenstein remake which hit Netflix on November 7
