All About Jacob Elordi's Parents, John and Melissa Elordi

The Priscilla star has a close relationship with his mom and dad

Jacob Elordi's career has taken off since his starring role in 2018’s The Kissing Booth, and he’s had his parents by his side every step of the way.

The Priscilla actor was born to John and Melissa Elordi on June 26, 1997, in Brisbane, Australia. As the youngest of the family with three older sisters, Jacob has admitted he grew up with everything he could ask for.

“Growing up as the baby, I was definitely spoiled and I’m still spoiled,” he said in an interview with GQ in 2020.

His father originally immigrated from the Basque Country, a region between France and Spain, while his mother is Australian. Jacob has spoken about how supportive John and Melissa have been of his career, despite their initial concerns due to the difficulty of breaking into the industry.

From their personal lives to the support of their son, here’s everything to know about Jacob Elordi’s parents and their relationship with the actor.

John immigrated from the Basque region

While Melissa is from Australia, where she raised her four children alongside her husband, John’s family is originally from the Basque region, which Jacob described as a “little place between France and Spain” in his 2020 interview with GQ.

“My grandfather would strangle me if he knew that it said Spanish descent,” he said of his Wikipedia page, which originally said his family was from Spain and he then corrected to Basque.

His father was 8 years old when he emigrated with only $8 in his pocket, the Euphoria actor told El Pais in 2022. “I’m super proud of that heritage,” he said.

John is a housepainter

John works as a housepainter and spent 13 years building the Elordi family’s house himself. Jacob told GQ in 2022 that his father is a “totem of the kind of man that I would like to be” and that his hard work instilled a strong toughness and work ethic in the Saltburn actor.

As a laborer, John has a hard time sometimes understanding Jacob’s career — but that doesn’t mean he isn’t extremely supportive.

“He’ll still be like, ‘Are you going to shoot the one…where you’re kissing? In the booth?’ ‘No, Dad, I’m making good movies, I swear,’ ” Jacob told GQ. “‘Is that the one where you’re an American?’ ‘I’m American in all of them, Dad.’ ”

Melissa was a stay-at-home mom

Growing up, Jacob had a strong bond with his mom who would spend as much quality time as possible with him. He recalled to GQ how Melissa volunteered to work at his school’s lunchroom so she could hang out with him while he was eating the lunch she had packed for him.

Jacob told the outlet that he has the closest relationship with his mom, whom he described as “the most present, loving, just beautiful, angelic human being on this planet.”

They have four children

Before they welcomed Jacob, Melissa and John had three daughters, whom Jacob described as “relatively much older” than him to GQ. One of his sisters, Isabella, was a ballet dancer at The Australian Ballet School, so the Elordi family moved from Brisbane, where Jacob was born, to Melbourne so she could study.

John and Melissa supported Jacob in his career after their initial concerns

John told the Daily Mail in March 2022 that he saw his son getting into the theater and acting world when he was young and was initially wary.

“He loved the theatre. He devoured films. He devoured books about films,” he said. “Sometimes two or three books at a time. He watched YouTube videos of actors’ auditions.”

John added that he questioned his son’s decision to pursue acting at first — pointing out how difficult it is to break into the industry — but ultimately decided to trust his son’s instinct.

“Jacob always had this very strong self-belief but of course as parents you try and be pragmatic and we were very pragmatic,” he told the outlet. “He always knew what he wanted to be. And as his father there was a time I said to him ‘Mate, acting is a one-in-a-million kind of situation.’ ”

The proud dad continued, “And he said to me ‘Well why can't that one be me? Why can't I be that one in a million?’ That's how confidently he looked at things. So as a parent we just decided to back him to the hilt and trust that he knew what he was doing.”

Now, their doubts have been assuaged as Jacob’s success has taken off with projects like The Kissing Booth, Euphoria and his latest role: playing Elvis Presley in Priscilla.

“What little I do understand about the movie world is that it can be very fickle and one minute there might be something really big happening and then the next minute it's gone,” John told the Daily Mail. “I know what a hard worker Jake is so if he keeps doing that, which I know he will, then he will achieve whatever he puts his mind to.”

Both Melissa and John are proud of their son's accomplishments, and even have T-shirts with images of almost every character he’s ever played, per GQ.

They are invested in the characters Jacob plays

After seeing Jacob dressed up as Elvis for the first time when he FaceTimed her in full costume, Michelle was in shock. “I think she just started yelling,” he told Entertainment Tonight.

However, Michelle was less pleased with other roles, as Jacob’s character in Euphoria, Nate, is an aggressive, dark high school student who is often abusive to his partners. After Nate got arrested for abusing his girlfriend in season 1 of the show, Jacob told GQ that Melissa called him and was upset.

“I think she sees him as me,” Jacob said.

John felt similarly, he told the Daily Mail, when he saw his son as Nate strangle his on-screen girlfriend. He said, however, that he is still able to see the difference between who his son truly is and the characters he plays.

“Unlike a number of people on the internet I am able to differentiate between the character and the actor," John said. “It's not necessarily easy to watch though. When you see your son on screen putting a gun to his head or putting his hand around a girl's throat ... I get it.”

They joined him on the 'Today' show

During a Zoom interview with the Today show in January 2022, co-hosts Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager noticed that there were people in the mirror behind Jacob sitting on the bed. When Kotb asked who they were, Jacob revealed it was his parents and then flipped the camera to them — prompting Melissa to hide in the pillows.

He shared that they flew from Australia a few days ago to join him. Kotb asked what they thought of Jacob being a “Hollywood heartthrob,” and they jokingly replied, “Be better!”

Over a year later, in October 2023, Jacob joined the show again and reflected on the sweet moment with Kotb.

“I think this is the first time that I’ve been on Australian radio and television,” he said, referring to his role as Elvis. “They’re just tuned into everything, they can’t believe it. I’m finally like a real actor.”

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