Alessandro Nivola was at the Oscars in March 2026 for The Brutalist, one of the most nominated films of the year, and the one that finally put his name in the conversation that matters.
His son Sam was not at the ceremony. Sam was in Austin, Texas, at SXSW, standing next to his girlfriend, Iris Apatow at the premiere of her new film, Pretty Lethal. He had his own career to attend to.
That is the version of this story that gets written now — two young actors from famous families, navigating Hollywood on their own terms, showing up for each other on red carpets while their parents collect the kind of awards that take decades to earn. What does not get written as often is the version that came before it: the Columbia University dropout who defied both his parents to become an actor, then had to prove they were wrong to doubt him before he was old enough to rent a car.
Sam Nivola is 22 years old, and his father is Alessandro Nivola. His mother is Emily Mortimer. He has appeared in White Noise, Eileen, The Perfect Couple, and The White Lotus Season 3. He lives in New York's East Village with Iris Apatow and a cat named Kumo.
None of that was supposed to happen.
Sam Nivola's Parents Alessandro Nivola and Emily Mortimer — Why They Said No
Emily Mortimer and Alessandro Nivola have been married since January 2003, having met on the set of the film Love's Labour's Lost in 2000. Both are working actors with long, serious careers — Mortimer in The Newsroom, the Paddington films, Jay Kelly; Nivola in Face/Off, Jurassic Park III, and The Brutalist, which earned him significant awards attention in 2026. They raised Sam and his younger sister May in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. They sent him to Saint Ann's School. He enrolled at Columbia University.
Then he quit.
He dropped out to pursue acting full-time, and his father's reaction was not enthusiastic. Alessandro told People he had "tried to talk him out of it." Sam's explanation for why they worried made a kind of sense: "My parents really didn't want me to be an actor, which I totally get — I don't know if I'd want my kid to be an actor. It's a really mentally tough career to be in."
That conversation happened while Sam was already booking roles. It did not stop either of them from being right about what they were each saying.
What Sam Nivola Did Before Anyone Was Paying Attention
Sam Nivola was born on September 26, 2003, in London, at the Portland Hospital in central London, to be precise. He spent his early childhood split between Los Angeles and Notting Hill before the family settled in Brooklyn. He attended Saint Ann's School alongside a particular density of children who would end up in entertainment, which is either formative or unremarkable depending on how you look at it.
His first acting credit came in 2013, at age nine, in Doll & Em, a Sky Atlantic comedy series starring his mother. That is the kind of origin story that gets used to dismiss someone, and it would be unfair to use it that way here. He was nine. His mother was in the show. He appeared in it. That is not a career launch; it is a childhood memory.
The actual career started later. In 2021, he and his sister May appeared together in The Pursuit of Love, a BBC One miniseries adapted by their mother from Nancy Mitford's novel. That same year, he wrote and directed a short film, Neighborhood Watch, for the anthology With/In — a collection of films shot on smartphones during the COVID lockdown. He was seventeen and already interested in what happened on the other side of the camera.
Noah Baumbach noticed him. At the callback audition for White Noise in 2022, Baumbach asked Sam whether his sister wanted to audition for the sibling role, which she got, meaning both of them appeared in one of that year's most discussed films, playing the children in a family led by Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig. Sam was eighteen.
The following year, he played Leonard Bernstein's son in Bradley Cooper's Maestro. He walked the Miu Miu runway at Paris Fashion Week alongside Emma Corrin. He appeared in Eileen, the thriller based on Ottessa Moshfegh's novel. None of these were cameos or background roles. He was being cast in things that mattered.
Sam Nivola in The White Lotus Season 3: The Role That Changed Everything
Season 3 of The White Lotus was filmed in Thailand in 2024. Mike White, who created the show and writes every episode, cast Sam Nivola in a role that became one of the season's most talked-about arcs.
Details of the character are better experienced than described — the show is the kind of thing that gets ruined by plot summaries. What is worth noting is that Nivola held his own in a cast that included Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, and Leslie Bibb, none of whom are known for sharing screen space generously. His White Lotus appearance is what pushed him from "interesting supporting actor" to "name people actually search."
His girlfriend, Iris Apatow, visited him on set in Thailand. He posted black-and-white photos of her alongside his co-stars Patrick Schwarzenegger and Sarah Catherine Hook. The relationship became public through those photos before either of them formally acknowledged it.
Who Iris Apatow Is, and Why the Relationship Gets Written About
Iris Apatow is 23 years old. Her parents are filmmaker Judd Apatow and actress Leslie Mann. She appeared as a child in several of her father's films — Knocked Up, This Is 40 — and has since built her own career, with a role in Netflix's Unstable and, most recently, the Hulu drama Tell Me Lies Season 3 and the SXSW film Pretty Lethal.
She and Sam have been dating since early 2024. They moved in together in the East Village. He told Teen Vogue in February 2025 that he was "so in love" and that he had expected living together young to make things feel routine — and that it had not.
In a Variety Actors on Actors conversation with Cooper Koch, Sam addressed the nepo baby conversation with the kind of directness that either lands well or does not: "My whole thing was that my parents really didn't want me to be an actor," he said. He also joked that he, his friends, and Apatow were apparently seen as "some secret cabal of nepo kids who hang out in black robes."
The joke is better than the defensive response most people in his position give. It acknowledges the perception without pretending the advantages do not exist, and it does not apologize for having parents with careers. He dropped out of an Ivy League university to act. His father tried to stop him. He did it anyway. That is a version of agency, regardless of what the advantages were.
Where Sam Nivola Stands Now
On March 13, 2026, Sam Nivola stood outside the Pretty Lethal premiere at SXSW in Austin and watched Iris Apatow celebrate the film she had made. He was there as her boyfriend, not as a subject of the evening's coverage.
Three months earlier, his father had been at the Dolby Theatre for the Brutalist campaign — one of the year's most talked-about films, which put the Nivola name back in awards conversations for the first time in years. The family has had a complicated relationship with the acting industry — complicated enough that both his parents tried to discourage the career Sam is now clearly building.
His next project is a new TV series called Yaga, which was in post-production as of March 2026. He has been signed with CAA. He is 22 years old and has already appeared in a Noah Baumbach film, a Bradley Cooper film, and one of HBO's most-watched series.
For readers following other second-generation performers who built careers outside their parents' shadows, Just Jared covered their SXSW appearance in full, including photos from the Pretty Lethal premiere.
The conversation about nepo babies in Hollywood is never really about whether advantages exist. It is about what someone does with them. Sam Nivola dropped out of Columbia, defied his parents, and booked The White Lotus. Hello Magazine has a full breakdown of his background and relationship with Apatow</a> for those tracking the longer arc.
For readers following Ryan Keira Armstrong's own career trajectory — and how young performers navigate very public career moments — the Pretty Lethal premiere at SXSW was one of the cleaner versions of that story this week.
Frequently Asked Questions About Sam Nivola
Who is Sam Nivola?
He is a 22-year-old American and British actor born on September 26, 2003, in London. He is the son of actors Alessandro Nivola and Emily Mortimer and has appeared in White Noise (2022), Maestro (2023), Eileen (2023), The Perfect Couple (2024), and The White Lotus Season 3 (2025). He dropped out of Columbia University to pursue acting full-time despite his parents' reservations. He lives in New York City with his girlfriend, actress Iris Apatow.
Who are Sam Nivola's parents?
Sam's father is actor Alessandro Nivola, who received significant awards and attention in 2026 for The Brutalist. His mother is British actress Emily Mortimer, known for The Newsroom, the Paddington films, and Jay Kelly. The two met on the set of Love's Labour's Lost in 2000 and married in January 2003. Both parents were reluctant about Sam's acting career — Alessandro told People he had tried to talk his son out of pursuing it professionally.
Who is Sam Nivola dating?
Sam Nivola has been dating actress Iris Apatow since early 2024. Apatow is the daughter of filmmaker Judd Apatow and actress Leslie Mann. The couple went public when Nivola posted photos of Apatow visiting him on the White Lotus Season 3 set in Thailand. They live together in New York City's East Village with a cat named Kumo. In February 2025, Nivola described the relationship to Teen Vogue as one where he was "so in love."
What is Sam Nivola in?
Sam's acting credits include Doll & Em (2013), The Pursuit of Love (2021), White Noise (2022), Maestro (2023), Eileen (2023), The Perfect Couple (2024), and The White Lotus Season 3 (HBO, 2025). He also wrote and directed the short film Neighborhood Watch in 2021. His upcoming project is a new TV series called Yaga.
Did Sam Nivola drop out of college?
Yes. Sam was enrolled at Columbia University before dropping out to pursue acting full-time. His father, Alessandro Nivola, told People that he had tried to talk Sam out of the decision, saying it was "a really mentally tough career to be in." Despite his parents' reservations, Sam went on to appear in White Noise, The White Lotus, and several other prominent productions.
Is Sam Nivola a nepo baby?
Nivola has addressed the nepo baby question directly. In a Variety Actors on Actors conversation with Cooper Koch, he joked that he and his friends — including girlfriend Iris Apatow, also the child of famous parents — were apparently a "secret cabal of nepo kids who hang out in black robes." He has also noted that his parents actively discouraged him from acting, making his career trajectory more complicated than the straightforward nepo narrative suggests.