Timothée Chalamet

Early life

Timothée Hal Chalamet was born on December 27, 1995, and grew up in the New York City neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen. He and his parents lived in a rental apartment in Manhattan Plaza, a federally subsidized building reserved for artists under the Mitchell–Lama program. His mother, Nicole Flender, is of Russian Jewish and Austrian Jewish descent. She has worked as a Broadway dancer, dance teacher and French teacher, and is currently a real estate agent. Chalamet's father, Marc Chalamet, is from Nîmes, France. He is a New York correspondent for the Paris newspaper Le Parisien and an editor for UNICEF. Chalamet's paternal grandmother was originally from Brantford, Ontario. On his mother's side, Chalamet is a nephew of Rodman Flender and Amy Lippman, a husband-and-wife filmmaking duo. His older sister, Pauline Chalamet, is an actress, and has described their family as being "very middle-class".

Chalamet is bilingual in English and French, and holds dual United States and French citizenship. Growing up, Chalamet spent summers in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a small French village two hours from Lyon, at the home of his paternal grandparents. He attended PS 87 William T. Sherman School for elementary school, and MS 245 The Computer School for middle school, later transferring to the selective Delta program at MS 54 Booker T. Washington Middle School. He described his experience at the school as "miserable" due to the lack of a creative outlet within the school's academically rigorous environment.

Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight (2008) inspired Chalamet to pursue a career in acting, and he applied to Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. Although his application was rejected based on his interview, a drama teacher was so impressed by his audition that he insisted on Chalamet's acceptance to the school. The teacher, who would later instruct Chalamet during his sophomore year, said he gave Chalamet the highest score he had ever given a prospective student. During high school, Chalamet dated Madonna's daughter Lourdes Leon, a fellow student, for a year. He starred in school musicals as Emcee in Cabaret and Oscar Lindquist in Sweet Charity, and graduated in 2013. Chalamet is also a YoungArts alumnus.

Chalamet attended Columbia University for a year, majoring in cultural anthropology. He later transferred to New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study to pursue his acting career more freely, having found it difficult to assimilate into Columbia after filming Interstellar. He eventually dropped out of New York University to focus on his acting career and avoid student debt.

Career

2008–2016: Early roles

As a child, Chalamet appeared in several commercials and acted in two horror short films called Sweet Tooth and Clown, before making his television debut on an episode of the long-running police procedural series Law & Order (2009), playing a murder victim. This was followed by a minor role in the television film Loving Leah (2009). In 2011, Chalamet made his stage debut in the Off-Broadway play The Talls, a coming-of-age comedy set in the 1970s, in which he played a sexually curious 12-year-old. The chief theatre critic of New York Daily News wrote: "Chalamet hilariously captures a tween's awakening curiosities about sex." In 2012, he had recurring roles in the drama series Royal Pains and the thriller series Homeland, in which Chalamet played Finn Walden, the rebellious son of the Vice President. Along with the rest of the cast, he was nominated for a SAG Award for Best Ensemble.

In 2014, Chalamet made his feature film debut in a minor role in Jason Reitman's Men, Women & Children. That same year, he played the role of Tom Cooper, the son of Matthew McConaughey's character, in Christopher Nolan's Interstellar. The film received positive reviews, with critics praising the cast's performances, and grossed over $700 million worldwide. A decade later, Chalamet stated that Interstellar was his favorite film he had ever been in up to that point, but shared that at the time he was disappointed because it didn't boost his career as he had assumed it would. Also in 2014, Chalamet had a supporting role in Worst Friends, a comedy which had a limited theatrical release and received positive reviews.

In 2015, Chalamet co-starred in Andrew Droz Palermo's fantasy thriller One & Two, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it received mixed reviews, before its limited theatrical release. His next role was playing the teenage version of James Franco's character, Stephen Elliott, in Pamela Romanowsky's The Adderall Diaries. In his final role of 2015, Chalamet played Charlie Cooper, the sullen grandson of Diane Keaton and John Goodman's characters in the Christmas comedy Love the Coopers, which received negative reviews.

In 2016, Chalamet starred as Jim Quinn in the autobiographical play Prodigal Son at Manhattan Theatre Club. Handpicked by its playwright and director John Patrick Shanley and producer Scott Rudin, Chalamet portrayed a younger Shanley, a misfit Bronx kid in a prestigious New Hampshire prep school set in 1963. His performance was praised and won him the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play, in addition to a nomination for the Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance. Chalamet also co-starred opposite Lily Rabe in Julia Hart's Miss Stevens as the troubled student Billy Mitman. Stephen Farber of The Hollywood Reporter described Chalamet's act as "compelling" and "startling", with his character's speech from Death of a Salesman as among the best he has ever seen. Stephen Holden of The New York Times compared him to James Dean.

2017–2020: Breakthrough

After being attached to the project for three years, Chalamet starred in Luca Guadagnino's Call Me by Your Name, based on the novel of the same name by André Aciman. The story revolves around Elio Perlman, a young man living in Italy during the 1980s, who falls in love with Oliver (Armie Hammer), a university student who has come to stay with his family. In preparation, Chalamet learned to speak Italian, as well as to play the piano and guitar. Call Me by Your Name premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim; critics particularly highlighted Chalamet's performance.

Olly Richards of Empire wrote: "In a film in which every performance is terrific, Chalamet makes the rest look like they're acting. He alone would make the film worth watching". Jon Frosch of The Hollywood Reporter stated that no performance during the year "felt as emotionally, physically and intellectually alive" and included Chalamet in the magazine's list of the best performances of the year. Time and The New York Times also featured him in such lists. He won the Gotham Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Performer and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead, and received nominations for the Critics' Choice Movie Award, Golden Globe Award, Actor Award, BAFTA Award, and Academy Award, all for Best Actor. He is the third-youngest person to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor as well as the youngest since Mickey Rooney in Babes in Arms in 1939.

In his second film of 2017, Chalamet played Daniel, a gawky teenager who gets swept up in the drug-dealing business throughout a summer, in Elijah Bynum's directorial debut, Hot Summer Nights. It received a limited theatrical release the following year and generated mixed reviews from critics, though Chalamet received praise from K. Austin Collins of Vanity Fair, who called the "sensitivity" in his performance "something special". Later that year, he played Kyle Scheible, a rich hipster in a band and a love interest of Saoirse Ronan's character in Lady Bird, the solo directorial debut of Greta Gerwig. Critics praised the ensemble cast, with Ty Burr of The Boston Globe taking particular note of Chalamet's "hilarious" performance. In his final film of 2017, Scott Cooper's western Hostiles, Chalamet played a young soldier named Philippe DeJardin, alongside Christian Bale.

In 2018, Chalamet joined the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Later that year, Chalamet portrayed Nic Sheff, a teenager addicted to methamphetamine who shares a strained relationship with his father, the journalist David Sheff (portrayed by Steve Carell), in the drama Beautiful Boy. Directed by Felix Van Groeningen, the film is based on a pair of memoirs—the elder Sheff's memoir of the same name and Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines by Nic Sheff. Owen Gleiberman of Variety drew comparisons with Chalamet's performance in Call Me by Your Name, stating that "Nic, in his muffled millennial James Dean way, [as] skittery and self-involved" is a transformation from the "marvelous directness" he displayed in the role of Elio Perlman. He received nominations for Best Supporting Actor at the Golden Globe, Actor, and BAFTA award ceremonies.

2021–present: Established actor

In 2021, Chalamet portrayed a student revolutionary in Wes Anderson's ensemble comedy-drama The French Dispatch. The film had its world premiere at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, where it generated positive reviews. Anderson wrote the role with Chalamet in mind. Brianna Zigler of Paste found him to be "perfectly attuned to Anderson's highly specified wavelength". Chalamet starred as the main character Paul Atreides in Denis Villeneuve's film adaptation of the science fiction novel Dune, which premiered at the 78th Venice International Film Festival. Villeneuve stated that Chalamet was his only choice to play the role: "I needed that for the audience to believe this young man will be able to lead a whole planet." Chalamet received positive reviews for his performance, with The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney praising his "magnetic pensiveness [that] gives the coming-of-age element some heart" and Lewis Knight of Daily Mirror writing that "Timothée Chalamet completes his ascension to Hollywood leading man status". Dune earned over $400 million worldwide to emerge as one of the year's highest-grossing films. Chalamet later expressed slight criticism of his performance in the film, stating: "I felt kind of thrown by the futurism. I was coming off Beautiful Boy and Call Me by Your Name and movies that were a lot more naturalistic, and this was a huge movie, so I felt intimidated." In his final role of the year, Chalamet played a skater punk in Adam McKay's Netflix ensemble comedy film Don't Look Up. It received mixed reviews from critics. Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times found Chalamet "sweetly sincere" in his small part. The ensemble cast of the film was nominated for an Actor Award.

Chalamet reunited with Guadagnino in the road film Bones and All (2022), in which he starred alongside Taylor Russell as cannibal drifters. The project marked his first production venture, and Chalamet credited Guadagnino for mentoring him through the process. Bones and All premiered at the 79th Venice International Film Festival. Leila Latif of IndieWire praised the chemistry between Chalamet and Russell and took note of his "near-peerless ability to gently weep", and Jon Frosch of The Hollywood Reporter added that "Chalamet reminded us why he's the best actor of his generation". That same year, Chalamet lent his voice to the Netflix adult animated musical special Entergalactic.

In 2023, Chalamet hosted Saturday Night Live for a second time. He then portrayed Willy Wonka in the musical film Wonka, directed by Paul King, for which Chalamet was paid $9 million. He was King's only choice for the role, stating that he cast the actor without an audition after seeing his high school performances on YouTube that proved his singing and dancing skills. Chalamet sang seven songs for the film's soundtrack. Slant Magazine's Derek Smith commended Chalamet for "imbuing Wonka [with] a warmth and tenderness that's in perfect unison with the vibrant and bizarre world that King creates here". His performance earned him another nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. Wonka grossed over $634 million worldwide to rank as the eighth highest-grossing film of 2023. Chalamet went on to express that he made the film partially because he was a fan of King's Paddington films and added: "I would say the riskiest thing (I ever made) was Wonka. ... I felt it was an untraditional career step wherein I had done serious movies already ... I feel like that movie didn't get its fair shake. Even though it was financially successful... it felt like there were 'codes of coolness' ... I honestly thought it was kinda punk rock to do something that wasn't so cool but I don't think people really took it that way."

Public image and fashion

Several media publications consider Chalamet to be among the most talented actors of his generation. Remarking upon his performance in Beautiful Boy, Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "he might be the male actor of his generation." In 2018, he appeared in Forbes's 30 Under 30 Hollywood & Entertainment list.

Chalamet has been described by the media as a sex symbol and a fashion icon, with his hair, jawline, and androgynous looks highlighted as his trademarks. The New York Times grouped Chalamet into a label it called "noodle boys", noted for their "sinewy" appearance and who served as an "alternative image of white masculinity" in American pop culture. Vogue named Chalamet the most influential man in fashion in 2019 and credits him for continuing "to ply the boundary between traditional masculinity and femininity," writing "those fashion choices are all the more impressive considering that Chalamet styles himself." In 2020, Men's magazine GQ ranked Chalamet as the best-dressed man in the world, and in 2023, he was voted Most Stylish Man of The Year by GQ's readers. He briefly attended a Timothée Chalamet look-alike contest in Washington Square Park in late 2024, kickstarting a large increase in the prevalence of celebrity look-alike contests that year. Chalamet has a strong fan presence online, most notably Club Chalamet, a woman who runs a dedicated fan account for him.

Chalamet served as one of the co-chairs of the 2021 Met Gala, alongside singer Billie Eilish, professional tennis player Naomi Osaka and poet Amanda Gorman. The event was part of the Costume Institute's exhibit In America: A Lexicon of Fashion. Later that year, Chalamet became a brand ambassador for Cartier. He also collaborated with Haider Ackermann to design a hoodie with 100% of the proceeds going to French organization Afghanistan Libre, which is centered around preserving the rights of women in Afghanistan. They first met in Paris in 2017 at the request of Chalamet's agent Brian Swardstrom, who wanted Ackermann to style him for his first red carpet, at that year's Berlin International Film Festival. They have since maintained a close friendship and creative partnership. Chalamet also had a close relationship with late designer Virgil Abloh.

At the 94th Academy Awards, Chalamet wore a sequined Louis Vuitton jacket from Nicolas Ghesquière's womenswear collection without a shirt; W declared that he had "rewritten the gentleman's Oscar dress code for good", highlighting the boundary-pushing outfit that "blurred the lines of fashion's traditional gender divide". He subsequently appeared on the cover of the October 2022 print edition of British Vogue, becoming the first solo male to do so in the magazine's history.

Personal life

Chalamet splits his time between New York and California. Despite significant media attention and public interest, he rarely discusses the romantic aspects of his personal life. Since April 2023, he has been in a relationship with Kylie Jenner.

Chalamet is an avid sports fan; in his youth, he aspired to be a professional soccer player. He is childhood friends with now-professional soccer player, Alex Muyl. Chalamet is a lifelong supporter of the French soccer team Saint-Étienne. He supports both France and the United States in international soccer. Chalamet is similarly a fan of basketball, having attended numerous New York Knicks games. He has furthermore shown extensive knowledge of college football and professional wrestling.

At age 15, Chalamet operated a YouTube channel called ModdedController360 in which he presented Xbox 360 controllers that he customized. He enjoys hip-hop music and considers rapper Kid Cudi to be his biggest career inspiration, alongside actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Joaquin Phoenix.

Performances and accolades

Chalamet has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performances in Call Me by Your Name, A Complete Unknown and Marty Supreme. He also received five British Academy Film Awards nominations for Call Me by Your Name, Beautiful Boy, A Complete Unknown and Marty Supreme, and won an Actor Award for his role in A Complete Unknown, in addition to nominations for Call Me by Your Name, Beautiful Boy and Marty Supreme. His other accolades include four Golden Globe Award nominations for his roles in Call Me by Your Name, Beautiful Boy, Wonka and A Complete Unknown, and a win for Marty Supreme. He further received a Grammy Award nomination for his work on the soundtrack for A Complete Unknown.