Timothée Chalamet

Timothée Chalamet Bio

Timothée Hal Chalamet, born December 27, 1995, in New York City, is an American and French actor widely recognized for his work in both independent dramas and large-scale blockbusters. He first drew major attention for his leading role in Call Me by Your Name (2017) and has since built a career that includes major franchises, biographical films, and awards recognition from the Academy Awards, the Screen Actors Guild, the Golden Globes, the Critics’ Choice Awards, and the British Academy Film Awards. He holds dual United States and French citizenship, having grown up between Manhattan and a small village in France, and he is also widely regarded in the press as a fashion figure and cultural tastemaker.

Early Life and Background

Timothée Hal Chalamet was born on December 27, 1995, and raised in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan. He grew up in Manhattan Plaza, a federally subsidized apartment building reserved for artists, with his mother, Nicole Flender, a former Broadway dancer turned real estate agent, and his father, Marc Chalamet, a French-born journalist. He has one older sister, Pauline Chalamet, who is also an actress, and on his mother’s side, he is a nephew of filmmakers Rodman Flender and Amy Lippman.

Through his father, Chalamet holds French citizenship and spent many summers in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a small village in France where his paternal grandparents lived. He grew up bilingual in English and French, and has described his dual cultural background as a defining part of his identity. He attended PS 87 William T. Sherman School for elementary school and later moved through several middle school programs, including the selective Delta program at MS 54 Booker T. Washington Middle School, where he felt limited by the academic focus.

Chalamet has credited Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight (2008) with inspiring him to pursue acting seriously. He auditioned for Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, where his drama teacher was so impressed that he pushed for Chalamet’s acceptance despite an earlier rejection. At LaGuardia, Chalamet starred in school musicals including Cabaret and Sweet Charity, graduated in 2013, and also became a YoungArts alumnus.

Path to Acting

After high school, Chalamet enrolled at Columbia University at 17, where he studied cultural anthropology and lived in Hartley Hall. While a student, he made his feature film debut in Jason Reitman’s Men, Women & Children and appeared in Christopher Nolan’s science fiction epic Interstellar (2014), playing the son of Matthew McConaughey’s character. He later transferred to New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study so that he could pursue acting more freely, and eventually left NYU to focus on his career full-time.

Chalamet began working as a child actor, appearing in commercials, short horror films, and an episode of Law & Order in 2009. He went on to take recurring roles in Royal Pains and the Showtime thriller Homeland, where he played Finn Walden, the rebellious son of the Vice President. He made his Off-Broadway stage debut in the coming-of-age comedy The Talls in 2011, and later starred as a young version of playwright John Patrick Shanley in the autobiographical play Prodigal Son in 2016, winning a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play.

Timothée Chalamet Career

Early Career (2008–2016)

Throughout his early years, Chalamet built his résumé with a steady run of supporting film and television roles, including parts in Loving Leah, the big-screen comedy Love the Coopers, the Berlin-premiering fantasy thriller One & Two, and the indie drama The Adderall Diaries. His work on Homeland led to a shared Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Best Ensemble with the rest of the cast. Critics also took note of his stage work in Prodigal Son, and he earned a Drama League Award nomination for Distinguished Performance.

Breakthrough (2017–2020)

Chalamet’s career-defining moment came with Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me by Your Name (2017), in which he played Elio Perlman, a teenager who falls in love with a graduate student played by Armie Hammer. Chalamet learned Italian, piano, and guitar for the role, and the film premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival to strong reviews. He won the Gotham Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Performer and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead, and received nominations for the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, BAFTA, Actor Award, and Critics’ Choice Movie Award for Best Actor, becoming the third-youngest nominee for Best Actor and the youngest since Mickey Rooney in 1939.

The same year, Chalamet appeared in Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird as the love interest of Saoirse Ronan’s character, and in 2018, he portrayed Nic Sheff in the biographical drama Beautiful Boy alongside Steve Carell, earning Golden Globe, Actor, and BAFTA nominations for Best Supporting Actor. He continued to balance independent and studio work in 2019, starring as Henry V in David Michôd’s The King and reuniting with Gerwig for Little Women, in which he played Theodore “Laurie” Laurence. In 2020, he also hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live.

Notable Works and Milestones

Beyond Call Me by Your Name, Chalamet’s signature works include his leading role as Paul Atreides in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune (2021) and Dune: Part Two (2024), his portrayal of Willy Wonka in Paul King’s musical Wonka (2023), and his portrayal of Bob Dylan in James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown (2024), for which he sang 40 Dylan songs and played guitars and harmonicas on the soundtrack. Wonka grossed over $634 million worldwide, while Dune: Part Two earned more than $714 million worldwide to rank as the seventh highest-grossing film of 2024.

Timothée Chalamet Award Nominations

Timothée Chalamet has built an extensive nominations record across major awards bodies, including three Academy Award nominations for Best Actor for Call Me by Your Name (2018), A Complete Unknown (2025), and Marty Supreme (2025). He has also received multiple BAFTA nominations for roles in Call Me by Your Name, Beautiful Boy, A Complete Unknown, and Marty Supreme, four Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor, and several Actor Award and Critics’ Choice nominations across his leading and supporting performances. He additionally earned a Grammy Award nomination for his work on the A Complete Unknown soundtrack.

Timothée Chalamet Awards Won

Chalamet has collected wins at major film awards ceremonies, most recently taking home the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. He has also won the Gotham Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Performer and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead for Call Me by Your Name, and the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play for Prodigal Son.

Timothée Chalamet Family

Timothée Chalamet was raised in a close-knit, arts-oriented household in New York City. His mother, Nicole Flender, is a third-generation New Yorker of half Russian Jewish and half Austrian Jewish descent, a former Broadway dancer, and a real estate agent who also taught French and dance. His father, Marc Chalamet, is a New York correspondent for Le Parisien and an editor for UNICEF, originally from Nîmes, France. His older sister, Pauline Chalamet, is an actress, and on his mother’s side, he is a nephew of filmmakers and producers Rodman Flender and Amy Lippman.

Personal Life

Chalamet splits his time between New York and California and is known for keeping the romantic side of his life private. Since April 2023, he has been in a relationship with Kylie Jenner. He is an avid sports fan who grew up aspiring to be a professional soccer player, supports the French club Saint-Étienne, frequently attends New York Knicks games, and has shown deep knowledge of college football and professional wrestling. He has also spoken about his love of hip-hop music, calling Kid Cudi his biggest career inspiration alongside actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Joaquin Phoenix.