Ansel Elgort

Biography

Ansel Elgort is an American actor, known for playing Augustus Waters in the romance The Fault in Our Stars (2014). Ansel was born in New York City to photographer Arthur Elgort and opera director Grethe Barrett Holby. His father is of Russian Jewish heritage, while his mother has English, German, and Norwegian ancestry. As a child, Ansel tried out for the School of American Ballet, and attended Stagedoor Manor summer camp and Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School. He began his professional acting career on stage, appearing in Matt Charman's play "Regrets," which was performed off-Broadway. Ansel made his film debut in the horror remake Carrie (2013), and co-starred with Shailene Woodley in both the science-fiction tale Divergent (2014) (playing her character's brother) and the romantic drama The Fault in Our Stars (2014) (playing male lead Augustus Waters, who is Woodley's character's love interest). Ansel also had a role in Jason Reitman's drama film Men, Women & Children (2014), and returned for the sequel to Divergent, Insurgent (2015).