Timothée Hal Chalamet (English: /ˈtɪməθi ˈʃæləmeɪ/; French: ; born December 27, 1995) is an American actor. He has received various accolades, including nominations for an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and three BAFTA Film Awards.
Chalamet began his career as a teenager in television productions, appearing in the drama series Homeland in 2012. In 2014 he made his film debut in the comedy-drama Men, Women & Children and appeared in Christopher Nolan's science fiction film Interstellar. Chalamet came to international attention with the lead role of a lovestruck teenager in Luca Guadagnino's coming-of-age film Call Me by Your Name (2017), earning him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Alongside supporting roles in Greta Gerwig's films Lady Bird (2017) and Little Women (2019), he took on starring roles as drug addict Nic Sheff in the drama Beautiful Boy (2018), Paul Atreides in Denis Villeneuve's science fiction film Dune (2021), and a young cannibal in Guadagnino's romantic horror film Bones and All (2022), which he also produced.
On stage, Chalamet starred in John Patrick Shanley's autobiographical play Prodigal Son in 2016, for which he won a Lucille Lortel Award and gained a nomination for a Drama League Award. Off-screen, he has been labeled as a sex symbol and a fashion icon.
Early life and education
Timothée Hal Chalamet was born on December 27, 1995, in New York City, and grew up in the federally subsidized artists' building Manhattan Plaza in Hell's Kitchen. He has an older sister, Pauline Chalamet, who is an actress. His mother, Nicole Flender, is a third-generation New Yorker, of half Russian Jewish and half Austrian Jewish descent. She is a real estate broker at The Corcoran Group, and a former Broadway dancer; Flender earned her bachelor's degree in French from Yale University, and has been a language and dance teacher. His French father, Marc Chalamet, is an editor for the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and former New York correspondent for Le Parisien. Marc is from Nîmes and is of a Protestant Christian background. Timothée's paternal grandmother, who had moved to France, was originally Canadian. On his mother's side, he is a nephew of husband-and-wife filmmakers and producers Rodman Flender and Amy Lippman.
Chalamet is bilingual in English and French, and holds dual United States and French citizenship, due to his French father. Growing up, Chalamet spent summers in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a small French village two hours away from Lyon, at the home of his paternal grandparents. He stated that his time in France led to cross-cultural identity issues. Chalamet attended PS 87 William T. Sherman School for elementary school, and later the selective Delta program at MS 54 Booker T. Washington Middle School, which he described as miserable due to the lack of a creative outlet within the school's academically rigorous environment. Heath Ledger's performance in The Dark Knight (2008) inspired him to establish a career in acting. He applied to Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. His acceptance into the school was a turning point in his appreciation for acting. Harry Shifman, his sophomore-year drama teacher at LaGuardia, was so impressed by his audition that he insisted on Chalamet's acceptance into the school even though he had been rejected in the interview (due to his middle school record), saying "I gave him the highest score I've ever given a kid auditioning." During high school, Chalamet dated Madonna's daughter Lourdes ("Lola") Leon, a fellow student, for a year. He starred in school musicals as Emcee in Cabaret and Oscar Lindquist in Sweet Charity, graduating in 2013. He is also a YoungArts alumnus.
After high school, Chalamet, then 17, attended Columbia University for one year, majoring in cultural anthropology, and was a resident of Hartley Hall. 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 to Columbia directly after filming Interstellar. Upon leaving Columbia, Chalamet moved to Concourse, Bronx.
