Ansel Elgort (born March 14, 1994) is an American actor and singer. He began his acting career with a supporting role in the horror film Carrie (2013). He gained wider recognition for starring as a teenage cancer patient in the romantic drama film The Fault in Our Stars (2014) and for his supporting role in The Divergent Series (2014–2016).
In 2017, Elgort played the title character in Edgar Wright's action thriller Baby Driver, for which he received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. He starred as Tony in Steven Spielberg's musical film West Side Story (2021) and since 2022, has portrayed Jake Adelstein in the crime series Tokyo Vice.
Early life, family and education
Elgort was born in New York City. His parents are Arthur Elgort, a fashion photographer who has worked extensively for Vogue magazine and Grethe Barrett Holby, an opera director. Elgort's father named him after prominent nature photographer Ansel Adams (1902–1984). He is of Russian Jewish descent on his father's side; and of Norwegian, English and German ancestry on his mother's.
Elgort's Norwegian maternal grandmother, Aase-Grethe, was in the Norwegian resistance during World War II and saved Norwegian Jewish children by moving them into neutral Sweden; because of these activities, she was imprisoned in a concentration camp. He is a cousin of comedian Sam Morril, who is the son of his paternal uncle.
Elgort has two older siblings: sister Sophie Elgort (born 1986), a fashion photographer, and brother Warren Elgort (born 1989), a cinematographer. At age nine, Ansel auditioned for the School of American Ballet. Elgort studied there for five years.
Elgort attended Trinity School (New York City), The Professional Performing Arts School, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School and Stagedoor Manor summer camp. Elgort started taking acting classes at age 12 and at LaGuardia, where he performed in a rendition of Hairspray with schoolmate Kyle Jean-Baptiste and starred in the school's productions of Guys and Dolls. During high school, in 2009, he appeared in Teen Vogue alongside Polish model Jac Jagaciak in an editorial photographed by his father.
Career
Acting
Elgort's first professional acting appearance was a few months before graduating high school, just days after his 18th birthday, when he premiered a lead role in an Off-Broadway production of Regrets in March 2012. His film debut was in the 2013 remake of Carrie, in the key secondary role of the lead character's prom date. His first highly publicized role was in Divergent (2014) as Caleb Prior, the brother of the lead character.
Immediately after the filming of Divergent was completed, it was announced that Elgort would play Augustus Waters in the film adaptation of John Green's novel The Fault in Our Stars opposite Shailene Woodley, who would play Hazel Grace Lancaster. The film followed the story of Hazel, a teenage cancer patient, who is forced by her parents to attend a support group, where she subsequently meets and falls in love with Waters, a former basketball player. The film, directed by Josh Boone, was released on June 6, 2014. Elgort next co-starred in the dramatic film Men, Women & Children, directed by Jason Reitman and released in October 2014; it co-starred his LaGuardia classmate Timothée Chalamet.
In 2014, Elgort was named one of the best actors under 20 years of age. Elgort reunited with Carrie co-star Chloë Grace Moretz to present the award for Best Visual Effects at the 2015 Oscars. He also reprised his role, Caleb Prior, in The Divergent Series: Insurgent, the second film of the book series Divergent, which was released March 20, 2015, and in the third film, The Divergent Series: Allegiant, which was released on March 18, 2016.
In 2016, Elgort was on a shortlist of actors for the role of Han Solo in Solo: A Star Wars Story. After Alden Ehrenreich was cast in May 2016, Elgort expressed some relief, saying that if he had been cast, he would have had to change his DJ name, Ansølo.
In 2017, Elgort played the title role in the action film Baby Driver, directed by Edgar Wright, and also starring Lily James and Kevin Spacey. Elgort's audition in 2014 required him to lip sync and dance to the song of his choosing. The film received positive reviews and performed well at the box office. Elgort received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance. Also that year, he played Addison Schacht in the drama thriller film November Criminals, an adaptation of the novel of the same name, starring again with Chloë Grace Moretz.