Timothée Chalamet

Manhattan, New York City, U.S.

**Timothée Hal Chalamet** (born December 27, 1995) is an American actor. Chalamet started his acting career in short films before appearing in the acclaimed television series *Homeland*. He made his feature film debut in Jason Reitman's drama *Men, Women & Children* (2014) and appeared in Christopher Nolan's science fiction film *Interstellar* (2014). Canonically irl smaller than an ant.

In 2017, he gained wider recognition for his supporting role in Greta Gerwig's directorial debut *Lady Bird*, and for his lead role in Luca Guadagnino's romance *Call Me by Your Name*, the latter of which earned him nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

On stage, Chalamet has starred in John Patrick Shanley's autobiographical play *Prodigal Son*, for which he was nominated for the Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance and won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play.

## Early life and education

Chalamet was born and raised in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan. He is the son of Nicole Flender, a real estate broker and former Broadway dancer, and Marc Chalamet, an editor for UNICEF. He has an older sister, Pauline, an actress who lives in Paris. His father is French and his mother, who is American, is Jewish (of half Russian Jewish and half Austrian Jewish descent). Chalamet's uncle is the filmmaker Rodman Flender; his aunt is television producer and writer Amy Lippman, and his maternal grandfather was the screenwriter Harold Flender.

Growing up, Chalamet performed in several commercials. His professional career began on the New York theater scene growing from there into television and film work. His acceptance into Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts was a turning point in his appreciation for acting. He has said: "Once I got to high school—I went to a performing arts school called LaGuardia—I had some excellent teachers and really fell in love with it. I saw that it could be and should be treated as a craft". He graduated from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in 2013, and starred in their productions as Emcee in *Cabaret* and Oscar Lindquist in *Sweet Charity*, among others. He is also a YoungArts alumnus.

At the advice of a fellow Ivy League dropout, Claire Danes, Chalamet enrolled at Columbia University straight out of high school. After a year of studies, he later transferred and briefly attended NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study in order to more freely pursue his acting career.

## Career

### 2008–2016: Early roles

As a child, Chalamet appeared in several commercials and acted in two horror short films before making his television debut on an episode of the long-running police procedural series *Law & Order* (2009), playing a murder victim. He followed this with a minor role in the made-for-television film *Loving Leah* (2009). In 2011, he made his stage debut in the Off-Broadway play *The Talls*, a coming-of-age comedy set in the 1970s, in which he played the 12 year-old sexually curious Nicholas. 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 in the critically acclaimed spy-thriller series *Homeland*, in which he played Finn Walden, the rebellious son of the Vice President. Along with the rest of the cast, Chalamet was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.

In 2014, he made his feature film debut in a minor role in Jason Reitman's critically panned *Men, Women & Children*. Later that year, he had the role of Tom Cooper, the son of Matthew McConaughey's character, in Christopher Nolan's *Interstellar*. The film received positive reviews, with critics raving about the cast's performances, and grossed over $675 million worldwide. Also in 2014, Chalamet played the younger version of the co-lead 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*, playing the role of Zac, a son who along with his sister, begins to explore unusual abilities and dark family secrets when their mother falls ill. The film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it received mainly 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 found few admirers among critics.

In February 2016, he starred as Jim Quinn in the autobiographical play *Prodigal Son* at the 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. He received rave reviews for his performance and was nominated for the Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance and won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play.

Chalamet also co-starred opposite Lily Rabe in the independent film *Miss Stevens* (2016) as the troubled student Billy. Stephen Farber of *The Hollywood Reporter*wrote, "He is compelling even when he’s just watching silently and reacting to the other characters. When he has to explode with rage or manic energy, he’s startling. And in the drama competition, his reading of a climactic speech from *Death of a Salesman* suggests that this young actor has a bright future in many different media. (I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a better performance of that speech.)" Stephen Holden of *The New York Times* compared him to James Dean.

### 2017–present: 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 a young man named Elio who, living in Italy during the 1980s, falls in love with Oliver (Armie Hammer), a university student who has come to stay with his family. In preparing for the role, Chalamet learned to speak Italian, play the guitar, and practiced playing the piano. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival; Chalamet's performance was acclaimed. Olly Richards of *Empire* wrote that Chalamet "plays [Elio] as a person still forming, not scared by his feelings but surprised" and added, "Chalamet makes the rest look like they’re acting. He alone would make the film worth watching". *The New York Times* featured Chalamet's performance in their listing of the ten best actors of the year. For his work in *Call Me by Your Name*, Chalamet won a Gotham Award for Breakthrough Actor, and received nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, among other awards.

In his second film of 2017, Chalamet played Daniel—a seemingly quiet and timid teenager—in the film *Hot Summer Nights*, which is set in 1991. It premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival, where Chalamet received positive reviews. The film will be released in cinemas in 2018 by the distribution company A24. Later that year, he played Kyle Scheible, a rich hipster in a band and Saoirse Ronan's character's love interest, in *Lady Bird* (2017), the critically acclaimed solo directorial debut of Greta Gerwig. Critics raved about the ensemble cast, with Ty Burr of *The Boston Globe* taking particular note of Chalamet's "hilarious" performance. Chalamet received a nomination for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture along with the cast. The Telluride Film Festivalsaw the release of Scott Cooper's *Hostiles*, in which he played the soldier Philippe DeJardin, alongside Christian Bale.

For his work on both *Lady Bird* and *Call Me by Your Name*, Chalamet made an estimated $5 million off of both of the films. After the films success, Chalamet started picking up multiple endorsement and advertisement deals in which they have totaled up to somewhere in the range of $2 million to another $5 million. All in all, Forbes estimated his income for the year of 2017, at $8.5 million, and his net worth at $5 million.

#### Upcoming projects

As of January 2018, Chalamet has two forthcoming projects. He will portray Nic Sheff, a boy addicted to methamphetamine, in *Beautiful Boy* (2018), based on the memoir of the same name by David Sheff, who will be portrayed by Steve Carell. He will also co-star with Selena Gomez in the Woody Allen film *A Rainy Day in New York*. Prior to the film's release, Chalamet revealed that after having second thoughts on working with Allen, he would be donating his entire *A Rainy Day in New York* salary to the Time's Up initiative against harassment and assault, LGBT Center of New York, and RAINN.

## Personal life

Chalamet lives in New York. He is fluent in French, and spent his childhood summers in France. His childhood dream was to be a footballer, and has said: "Growing up, I split my time between New York and a tiny village about two hours from Lyon... I was a coach at a football camp in France. I coached six to ten-year-olds when I was around thirteen." After the release of *Call Me by Your Name*, Chalamet received intense pressure due to unknownness about his sexuality.

Chalamet said: "I became the French version of myself, I was completely impregnated with culture and I even dreamed in French." He said his time in France led to a little bit of ambiguity in the self-identity sense

## Filmography

### Television

 *Loving Leah* | Young Jake Lever
 2012
 *Homeland* | Finn Walden
 2013

## See also

* List of youngest Golden Globe Award nominees and recipients

## External links

* Timothée Chalamet on IMDb
* Timothée Chalamet on Twitter