Timothée Chalamet — actor with roots in the Russian Empire
Timothée Hal Chalamet was born in Manhattan on 27 December 1995, the son of Marc Chalamet, a UNICEF editor from Nîmes, and Nicole Flender, a former dancer and real-estate broker from New York. His connection to the Russian Empire runs through his mother's family and is documented only in outline.
Nicole Flender is described as of Russian Jewish and Austrian Jewish descent; an older biography gives Russian and Polish instead. Her parents, the writer Harold Flender and the dancer Enid Rodman, were both born in the Bronx to Jewish emigrant parents. The generation that left the Russian Empire was therefore his great-grandparents', and no town or date of emigration is recorded. Harold Flender wrote for Sid Caesar's television comedy in the 1950s; Chalamet's uncle is the director Rodman Flender, and his sister, Pauline Chalamet, is also an actress.
On his father's side the family is French Protestant, and his paternal grandmother came from Brantford, Ontario. He grew up in New York and briefly attended Columbia University.
He appeared in the television series Homeland, and in 2017 had three notable films: Hostiles, Lady Bird and Call Me by Your Name. As Elio in Luca Guadagnino's Call Me by Your Name he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor at twenty-two, the third-youngest nominee in the category's history.
He went on to play Paul Atreides in Denis Villeneuve's Dune films and the title role in Wonka (2023). As Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown (2024) he won the Actor Award, formerly the Screen Actors Guild Award, and a second Oscar nomination. In January 2026 his performance as the table-tennis hustler Marty Mauser in Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme brought his first Golden Globe, the youngest winner in that category, and a third Best Actor nomination, which made him the youngest man to reach three acting nominations. He was also nominated as one of the film's producers. At the ceremony in March 2026 the award went to Michael B. Jordan.
He has been nominated for the Golden Globe five times, for Call Me by Your Name, Beautiful Boy, Wonka, A Complete Unknown and Marty Supreme.
"Maternal grandparents Harold Flender and Enid Rodman were born in the Bronx to Jewish emigrant parents; the family is described as of Russian Jewish and Austrian Jewish descent. Towns and dates not documented."
Migration storyTracing the roots — Russian Empire (town not documented)
His mother, Nicole Flender, is of Russian Jewish and Austrian Jewish descent. Her parents, Harold Flender and Enid Rodman, were born in the Bronx to Jewish emigrants, so the generation that left the Russian Empire was his great-grandparents'. No town or date is documented.
Mother Nicole Flender, of Russian Jewish and Austrian Jewish descent (an older IMDb biography says Russian and Polish); her parents, the screenwriter Harold Flender and the dancer Enid Rodman, were Bronx-born children of Jewish emigrants. Father Marc Chalamet is from Nîmes, France.
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Russian Empire (town not documented). At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.