Acting Elgort's first professional acting appearance was a few months before graduating high school, just days after his 18th birthday, when he premiered a lead role in an
Off-Broadway production of
Regrets in March 2012. The film followed the story of Hazel, a teenage cancer patient, who is forced by her parents to attend a support group, where she subsequently meets and falls in love with Waters, a former basketball player. The film, directed by
Josh Boone, was released on June 6, 2014. Elgort next co-starred in the dramatic film
Men, Women & Children, directed by
Jason Reitman and released in October 2014; it co-starred his LaGuardia classmate
Timothée Chalamet. In 2014, Elgort was named one of the best actors under 20 years of age. Elgort reunited with
Carrie co-star
Chloë Grace Moretz to present the award for Best Visual Effects at the 2015
Oscars. He also reprised his role, Caleb Prior, in
The Divergent Series: Insurgent, the second film of the book series
Divergent, which was released March 20, 2015, and in the third film,
The Divergent Series: Allegiant, which was released on March 18, 2016. In 2016, Elgort was on a shortlist of actors for the role of
Han Solo in
Solo: A Star Wars Story. After
Alden Ehrenreich was cast in May 2016, Elgort expressed some relief, saying that if he had been cast, he would have had to change his DJ name, Ansølo. In 2017, Elgort played the title role in the action film
Baby Driver, directed by
Edgar Wright, and also starring
Lily James and
Kevin Spacey. Elgort's audition in 2014 required him to
lip sync and dance to a song of his choosing. The film received positive reviews and performed well at the box office. Elgort received a nomination for the
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance. Also that year, he played Addison Schacht in the drama thriller film
November Criminals, an adaptation of the novel of
the same name, starring again with Moretz. Elgort starred in the film
Billionaire Boys Club, opposite
Taron Egerton,
Cary Elwes,
Emma Roberts and Spacey and directed by
James Cox. Due to allegations of sexual misconduct against Spacey, the future of the film was uncertain and no release date was set. The film was initially released through
video on demand on July 17, 2018, prior to a
limited release in theaters on August 17, 2018, by
Vertical Entertainment. Elgort played the lead role in the 2019 release
The Goldfinch, an adaptation of
Donna Tartt's novel. The film was critically panned and a
box office bomb. Elgort played the lead role of Tony in
West Side Story, an adaptation of the
1957 stage musical of the same name directed by
Steven Spielberg. The film was released in 2021 to critical acclaim, and received seven nominations at the
94th Academy Awards, including
Best Picture. Elgort next starred in
Tokyo Vice, a television adaptation of journalist
Jake Adelstein's non-fiction memoir for
HBO Max.
Michael Mann and
Destin Daniel Cretton directed episodes of the series, written by
J.T. Rogers. Elgort played the lead role of Adelstein and served as one of the series' executive producers. Although production on the series was halted due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, production resumed and the series debuted on
HBO Max in 2022 to positive reviews.
Music Under the name Ansølo, Elgort created a
SoundCloud account to publish
electronic dance music, and he has remixed songs such as "
Born to Die" by
Lana Del Rey. In a livestream in February 2014, he said he had signed a record deal with Tom Staar's new label, Staar Traxx, and
Steve Angello's label, Size Records. His first record,
Unite, was released on April 21, 2014, on
Beatport, and May 5, 2014, on
iTunes. His second record,
Totem, was released July 21, 2014, on Beatport and iTunes. His single "To Life", a
Bar Mitzvah-themed song inflected with
klezmer music, was released in September 2015. Elgort played at the
Electric Zoo Festival main stage in 2014, the
Ultra Music Festival main stage in March 2015, played in a red-light dance music event in
Amsterdam in 2014, opened some
The Chainsmokers shows, a
Nervo show and some others shows with his friends
Nicky Romero and
Martin Garrix. He played his first headline show on his 21st birthday on
Pacha NYC. In 2015, he signed a record deal with Island/Universal Records, releasing his first single on the label, "Home Alone", on July 8, 2016. On February 3, 2017, he released a single called "Thief" under the name Ansel Elgort. The music video featured his then-girlfriend Violetta Komyshan, a ballet dancer. He was featured on rapper
Logic's third studio album,
Everybody, released on May 5, 2017, on a song titled "Killing Spree". On January 11, 2018, he released a single called "Supernova". He provided vocals for and was featured on
Don Diablo’s 2018 single "Believe". ==Personal life==