Jacob Elordi’S Real First Acting Job – The Kissing Booth Wasn'T The Beginning

Teenage beginnings – a quiet climb to the screen

Jacob Elordi began acting while he was still a teen, slowly piecing together a résumé that would later explode into fame. Before he became Noah Flynn in The Kissing Booth, he’d already appeared in short films, worked as an extra on a major studio picture and landed his first feature film role.

His earliest documented screen credit is the 2014 short film Regret, where he played a character named Issac. He was only about 17 then, and his management résumé lists Regret in 2014 followed by Carpe Liam in 2015.

Short films that mattered – learning on small sets

Regret, Carpe Liam and Max & Iosefa

After Regret, Elordi turned up in the 2015 short Carpe Liam as Liam, getting more time in front of the camera before anyone outside Australia knew his name. He was roughly 18 when Carpe Liam was released and was still a young actor figuring out the craft.

"I was just a kid trying anything to be on set, learning the ropes one tiny project at a time," a representative recollection might read, which captures how those early credits felt for him.

In 2016 he followed with Max & Iosefa, playing Max and even picking up a writing credit. That short — about two homeless teens searching for acceptance — was a very small production, reportedly made for roughly A$3,000, but it gave Elordi real hands-on experience in acting and storytelling.

Feature debut clarified – Swinging Safari wasn’t his very first job

Rooster in a nostalgic Aussie comedy

Many sources call Swinging Safari Elordi’s first acting job, but that needs a small correction – it was his first feature film role, not his first screen appearance. The 2018 Australian comedy, directed by Stephan Elliott, featured Guy Pearce, Kylie Minogue and Radha Mitchell, and Elordi played Rooster, a young man in a fictional 1970s beach community.

The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia lists Swinging Safari as Elordi’s first feature acting credit. He was about 20 when the film came out and was still attending acting school while working on it, making the gig a major step up from his shorts.

A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it extra role – Pirates of the Caribbean

Background on a blockbuster set

Between the shorts and his first feature, Elordi had one unusual entry on his résumé – he worked as an uncredited extra on Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales in 2017. He was around 19 or 20 then, and the job got him onto a massive Hollywood set for the first time.

Elordi later joked that he was simply part of the background and that people sometimes try to spot him in screenshots, even though he was never a named character. Despite being invisible in the finished film, the experience was valuable – it showed him how a major international production functions compared with tiny Australian projects.

The Kissing Booth changed everything – from modest résumé to global recognition

From small projects to Netflix stardom

When Elordi auditioned for The Kissing Booth he still had a modest résumé: a few shorts, a feature credit in Swinging Safari and an uncredited extra spot on Pirates of the Caribbean. He was a relatively unknown actor on the brink of a breakthrough.

At 20, the Netflix teen rom-com turned him into a recognisable star almost overnight. His look, height and portrayal of the rebellious Noah Flynn made him especially popular with younger audiences and rapidly shifted his career from local Australian projects to international attention.

The important distinction – first screen role vs first feature role

How to answer the original question

There’s a simple but crucial distinction when asking about Elordi’s first acting job. If you mean his first documented screen role, it points to Regret in 2014, when he was about 17. If you mean his first feature film role, that credit belongs to Swinging Safari in 2018, when he was around 20.

That timeline makes his rise more interesting. Elordi didn’t appear out of nowhere in The Kissing Booth; he spent his late teens quietly working on short films, taking an extra job on a blockbuster and earning that first feature credit before Netflix changed everything.

Final thoughts – a short, steady climb

Jacob Elordi’s path shows how a few small gigs and earnest effort can lead to rapid visibility once the right project arrives. From Regret to Rooster to Noah Flynn, the story is one of steady, sometimes invisible work that ultimately paid off.

So the next time someone asks if The Kissing Booth was his first acting job, you can answer precisely – it wasn’t his first appearance, but it was the moment his career became unmistakable.