Laura Harrier Goes Instagram Official with Helly Nahmad

has gone Instagram official with her art dealer boyfriend Helly Nahmad as she celebrated her birthday with a raucous party on Tuesday.

The actress, 36, shared a cosy snap with Helly, 48, who previously spent time in jail over a decade ago for a conviction of illegal gambling, along with a gallery of images from the wild celebrations.

In the caption of her post, Laura paid tribute to 'her love' for organising her birthday bash, and Helly was proudly watching on as she received her birthday cake.

Laura has been dating Helly since September 2025, after she split from her ex-fiancé Sam Jarou at the beginning of 2025.

She captioned her post: 'I had the best birthday ever thank you to my friends for coming to celebrate thank you to my love for throwing me the most fun party i’m so so lucky.'

Helly is no stranger to mixing in celebrity circles, as he is a longtime pal of actor Leonardo , and was previously pictured with the star while attending his brother Joe's wedding in 2023.

Nahmad – a member of the world's wealthiest art collector family – is perhaps best known for being caught running an illegal celebrity-studded gambling ring alongside famed poker tournament hostess Molly Bloom in 2013.

The high-stakes card games were frequented by DiCaprio and fellow actors Tobey Maguire, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, as well as baseball slugger Alex Rodriguez. 

Nahmad is the son of David Nahmad, one of the most high-profile art dealer and collector in the world, with a fortune estimated at $3billion.

The Helly Nahmad Gallery, in New York carries works by the likes of Wassily Kandinsky and Francis Bacon.

Prior to his arrest in 2013, the young wealthy art peddler was known to run in a dizzying social circle of A-list friends, which included supermodel Gisele Bündchen and her now ex-husband Brady.

The Nahmads are not only extremely well connected in the world of arts but in politics as well.

In fact, Nahmad, a resident of Manhattan's Trump Tower, was one of 237 people pardoned by Donald Trump for his conviction on one federal felony count of illegal gambling, hours before the former president left office in early 2021.

Nahmad's guilty plea was accepted on April 30, 2014 by a judge in Los Angeles who sentenced him to one year and one day in a state prison.

He was released after serving just four months of his sentence.

He then spent three years under supervised release and was ordered to forfeit $6.42million in cash plus 'all rights, title and interest in a painted titled Carnaval a Nice by Raoul Dufy' – which was worth about $100,000 at the time.

At sentencing, he told the judge he was ashamed. 'My family is a private family and I have brought dishonor to it,' he said.

'No matter what your sentence today, I will never forgive myself. Others who love me may forgive, but I will not.'

The art dealer was among 34 co-defendants arrested for running a $100million-gambling ring for celebrities and executives in April 2013.

His arrest, however, wasn't the first time Nahmad had made news.

Nahmad, whose gallery is on Madison Avenue in Manhattan, became the target of a civil lawsuit that alleged he dealt in art stolen from European Jews by the Nazis before and during World War II, more particularly a painting by Amedeo Modigliani.

Last year, Laura split from her fiance Sam, after confirming their engagement in 2022. 

A source told US Magazine that Laura and Sam's break-up was 'amicable' and they have 'remained friends' since parting ways.    

The split came just a matter of months after Laura made headlines when she was videoed with American actor Shameik Moore, leading to speculation that the pair could have sparked a romance. 

Shameik had posted a video of him and and Laura in December captioned 'coming soon'.

The BlacKklansman actress took to her social media to hit back at the post, however, claiming it 'annoyed her'.

In a now-deleted TikTok, she said: 'I keep seeing all these videos that I’m being tagged in with another actor, and people speculating what that is. It’s really annoying me because I’m literally engaged, and that’s important to me.

'I’m in Hollywood, I get it. People do PR stunts, whatever. People like to get attention.'  

Sam and Laura met in 2019 but kept their relationship under wraps until 2021, when they were spotted kissing in Monaco. 

In September of that year, Laura announced the pair were engaged after a 'simple and sweet' proposal in Paris. 

Speaking about her engagement, Laura said she had found 'peace and calm' with Sam, who she called 'the one'.

'It was really simple (the proposal),' she told Cosmopolitan. 

'I never wanted one of those big showy public engagements. that's just not my personality.  

In response to how she knew that he was the one for the ultimate collaboration, she answered: 'The cliché of when you know, you know. I never really believed it until that happened to me.

'It's a funny feeling when you just find peace and calm.

'I also really do believe that you need to be ready within yourself before you can find somebody else to be with, which I also always thought was a cliché until I felt secure within myself and the person I am and where I'm at in life.'

Harrier first rose to fame at the age of 17 when she was discovered by a location scout in her hometown of Chicago, Illinois.

In 2017, she

She also made waves in 2018's BlacKkKlansman, in which she played the role of civil rights activist Patrice Dumas. The role earned her a Black Reel Award and a SAG Award nomination.

Harrier is also an ambassador for luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Bulgari, Calvin Klein and Boss.