Austin Butler

Butler's parents, David Butler and Lori Anne Howell, divorced when he was seven. David worked as a real estate appraiser, while Lori Anne was an aesthetician who later operated a daycare in the family home. Butler has an older sister, Ashley, who worked as a background actress alongside him on Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide.

Butler remained close to his mother, who died of duodenal cancer in 2014. He experienced severe depression after her death and took a months-long break from acting. He also has described experiencing crippling shyness during childhood and continuing to deal with those feelings as an adult.

Butler was in a relationship with actress Vanessa Hudgens from 2011 to 2019. He began dating actress and model Kaia Gerber in 2021, and their relationship ended in 2024.

At 13, Butler was approached by a representative from a background-acting management company at the Orange County Fair. He began taking acting classes and was homeschooled to accommodate his work schedule. His first regular screen work came as a background actor on Nickelodeon's Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, where he appeared in 41 episodes from 2005 to 2007.

He later appeared on Hannah Montana, iCarly, and Zoey 101. His role as James Garrett, a love interest of Jamie Lynn Spears's character on Zoey 101, was his first series-regular part and became an important early career opportunity. He also starred in the family film Aliens in the Attic and the television series Ruby & the Rockits.

Butler moved into more mature television roles with Life Unexpected, Switched at Birth, The Carrie Diaries, and The Shannara Chronicles. He played Sebastian Kydd in The Carrie Diaries from 2013 to 2014 and Wil Ohmsford in The Shannara Chronicles from 2016 to 2017.

Butler made his Broadway debut in 2018 as Don Parritt in a revival of Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh. The production starred Denzel Washington, and Butler's performance received strong reviews. His work on the play helped him move from teen television roles toward more prominent film projects.

In 2019, Butler appeared in Jim Jarmusch's The Dead Don't Die and played Tex Watson in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Although the role was relatively small, it placed him alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt and became his breakthrough film performance. Butler turned down a screen test for Top Gun: Maverick to work with Tarantino.

Butler became widely known for playing Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann's Elvis (2022). He won the role after submitting an audition tape in which he sang "Unchained Melody" and prepared by researching Presley's life, studying his performances, and working with movement, dialect, acting, and singing coaches. Butler's vocals are used throughout the early part of the film, while his voice is blended with Presley's recordings during the later Las Vegas sequences.

His performance earned him a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA Award for Best Actor, as well as an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. He also hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live in 2022 and was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2023.

After Elvis, Butler played Benny in The Bikeriders, Major Gale Cleven in the Apple TV+ miniseries Masters of the Air, and Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in Denis Villeneuve's Dune: Part Two. To prepare for Dune: Part Two, he gained weight and learned knife-fighting. He later appeared in Ari Aster's Eddington and Darren Aronofsky's Caught Stealing, and was announced for roles in Enemies, a Lance Armstrong biopic, and Miami Vice '85.