Pauline Chalamet

Chalamet was born in New York City, the first child of Nicole Flender and Marc Chalamet, and grew up in the federally subsidized artists' building Manhattan Plaza, in Hell's Kitchen.[6] Her younger brother is actor Timothée Chalamet. Her mother, Nicole Flender, is a third-generation New Yorker, of half Russian Jewish and half Austrian Jewish descent.[7] Flender is a real estate broker at The Corcoran Group,[8] and a former Broadway dancer; Flender earned her bachelor's degree in French from Yale University, and has been a language and dance teacher.[9][10] Her French father, Marc Chalamet, is an editor for the UNICEF and former New York correspondent for Le Parisien.[11][12] Marc Chalamet is from Nîmes and is of a Protestant Christian background.[10] Chalamet's paternal grandmother, who moved to France, was Canadian.[13] She was named after the Éric Rohmer film Pauline at the Beach.[14]

Chalamet is bilingual in English and French.[15] In 2001, she began taking classes at the School of American Ballet, and at age 10, danced in a Broadway production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.[16] She also attended the Rosella Hightower dance school in Mougins, South of France.[17] Chalamet attended the School of American Ballet until 2010, after a biking accident hindered any chances of furthering her dancing career.[3][18] Although she was ambivalent about a career in acting, she recalls seeing Liev Schreiber act in Talk Radio in 2006 as a pivotal moment in her decision.[19] After going to different schools, she was accepted at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School, where she majored in drama, and graduated in 2010.[20][21] At first, she rejected the idea of going to college, but finally applied to Bard College, where she double majored in theater and political science, graduating in 2014.[22][23][18] While studying, Chalamet worked at the school library and helped out at a farm to pay off her student loans.[24] She interned at International Crisis Group, and for a while thought of becoming a human-rights lawyer, but quickly discarded the idea.[18][20] After college, Chalamet worked various odd jobs, including bartending, copyediting, and babysitting, while writing in her free time. She decided to move to Paris without her family's knowledge. "I told my family after I had signed a lease", she has said.[25] In 2016, she was accepted for an acting apprenticeship at the Studio Théâtre d'Asnières, where she regained her interest in acting. While in Paris, she got a New York City-based agent, and auditioned while visiting her family.[26][20]

As of 2022, Chalamet lives in Paris, and splits her time between New York City and Los Angeles.[35][36] She is an avid reader and has a book club with her friends. On average she reads one book a week, with her favourite being Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo.[37][38]

• Pauline Chalamet at IMDb