Timothee Chalamet’s Hollywood family connections run deep (Picture: Laurent VU/SIPA/Shutterstock)
Turns out Timothee Chalamet is somewhat of a nepo baby – but do you know who his famous uncle is?
The Marty Supreme actor has been dominating awards season so far, scooping gongs at the Critics’ Choice Awards and Golden Globes, among others, for his portrayal of the table tennis player.
And he’s a strong contender for the Oscars too, having already made history as the youngest performer to score three acting noms – in short, still only 30, his career is absolutely rocketing.
However, it turns out the Hollywood heartthrob, who quickly rose to fame in 2017’s Call Me by Your Name, has entertainment roots and a deep connection to the industry after all.
Fans online had the revelation when Chalamet’s agent, Brian Swardstrom, responded to reports that he had auditioned for Gladiator 2 by saying: ‘He hasn’t auditioned for anything in more than seven years.’
The replies were soon flooded with bewilderment, as people said it’s ‘not a flex’ and questioned why his team would ‘voluntarily admit this’.
The actor’s uncle is filmmaker Rodman Flender (Picture: Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images)
He is pals with Conan O’Brien, having directed the 2011 doc Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop (Picture: Scott Melcer/WireImage)
Others suggested that it was simply a sign of his ‘star power’ levels, while @MarcosS92952 informed the masses: ‘Chalamet is a nepo baby but a lot of people don’t know that, but he has a uncle in the industry that open a lot of doors for him [sic]’.
Indeed, Chalamet’s uncle on his mum’s side is respected filmmaker Rodman Flender.
The American actor and director, 63, made his production debut with the thriller The Unborn in 1991, while he’s also directed feature films Leprechaun 2 (1994) and Idle Hands (1999).
TV-wise, he’s been involved with some of the biggest shows of recent times, with directing credits on episodes of The Office, Ugly Betty, and Gilmore Girls.
What’s more, Flender has been best pals with Conan O’Brien for decades. In 2011, he helmed the documentary Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop, which was even declared one of the best documentaries of that year by Roger Ebert.
In recent years, Flender has turned his hand to romantic comedies and horror films, including Eat, Brains, Love.
The Dune actor’s mother, Nicole, also had a performing career (Picture: Presley Ann Photo/Shutterstock)
These days, she works in real estate and is happy to be his plus one (Picture: Theo Wargo/Getty Images)
But the links to Hollywood don’t stop there, as Flender’s sister, Nicole Flender, aka Chalamet’s mum, is also an actress, best known for 1992’s In the Heat of Passion and The Bird Watcher.
These days, though, when not beaming with pride next to her son on red carpets, she is an accomplished real estate agent with Corcoran Real Estate in New York.
She’s been selling real estate with them for nearly a decade, according to Curbed, ever since her husband, Marc Chalamet, a French journalist who now works for the UN, ‘spotted a Groupon deal for discounted courses at the New York Real Estate Institute.’
Before this, she was a dance teacher in NYC public schools.
Basically, everyone in this family is a success story, including Chalamet’s sister, Pauline Chalamet, 34, who starred in The Sex Lives of College Girls on HBO from 2021 to 2025 and will appear in The Devil Wears Prada 2.
When a deep dive into the Chalamet empire, if you will, made its way to Reddit, fans couldn’t believe it, arguing the connections would have surely ‘opened doors’ for the Dune star.
The Oscar nominee’s sister, Pauline Chalamet, is a screen star in her own right (Picture: David Crotty/Getty Images)
Despite his stardom and Kardashian connections since dating Kylie Jenner, Chalamet has remained grounded (Picture: Elisabetta A. Villa/Getty Images)
Many jumped to Chalamet’s defence, though, with RealBug56 commenting: ‘Is this really nepotism or just a very talented actor getting work based on previous success? I hate “nepo babies” as much as anyone, but he’s genuinely good in everything he appears in.’
‘Nepotism certainly helped him get his start in the industry, but I feel like at this point Timothée has earned his stripes. He chooses his projects well and it’s his talent that has cemented him as a well respected young actor. The same cannot be said for the other nepo babies who try their hand at acting’, wrote Own-Ad5898.
Despite his now astronomical levels of fame, Chalamet, who is dating Kylie Jenner, has remained close with his family.
During his speech at this year’s Golden Globes, in fact, he shouted out his father for ‘instilling a spirit of gratitude’ in him growing up, teaching him to ‘always be grateful for what you have’.
Meanwhile, his mother always knew he was destined for greatness.
‘He was a normal kid,’ she told Business Insider. ‘He wanted to be a soccer star.’
Now often his plus one to major events, she added sweetly: ‘The photographers love us.
‘They always want me to get in the picture. They like to see a son who is close to his mother.’
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