With his lanky frame and his head of curls that always seems slightly out of place, 21-year-old Sam Nivola seems like a recipe for awkwardness. But that doesn’t mean he’s not bound for fame. On the contrary, he might have just found his niche on-screen.

While early on in his career, Nivola already seems adept at making audiences collectively hold their breath.

With the recent culmination of “The White Lotus” Season 3 (spoilers), he had audiences screaming when his character Lochlan Ratcliff nearly died in a freak blender accident, courtesy of his on-screen father Timothy (Jason Isaacs). Things also got really awkward on a bender that descended into a somewhat incestual tryst with his brother Saxon (Patrick Schwarzengger). 

Audiences might remember his earlier turn as yet another awkward brother in Netflix’s murder mystery show, “The Perfect Couple,” starring Nicole Kidman. 

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Before making waves on “The White Lotus,” Nivola had already demonstrated his talent for embodying unsettling characters in Noah Baumbach’s adaptation of “White Noise” (2022), where he played the child of Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig. As Heinrich, he delivered the kind of intellectual precociousness that simultaneously impresses and unnerves, showing the kind of talent of a young actor who can deliver beyond their years. 

At present, Nivola has cornered the market on characters that make viewers feel deliciously uncomfortable. And his specialty seems to be making family dysfunction feel unnervingly authentic.

Minor hollywood royalty

While Nivola’s big roles lately seem to be focused on family, the actor himself comes pre-packaged with a notable Hollywood pedigree. 

His mother Emily Mortimer is an accomplished British actress you might recognize from the series “The Newsroom” or Woody Allen’s “Match Point,” “The Pink Panther,” and the psychological thriller “Shutter Island.” 

Meanwhile, his father, Alessandro Nivola, is the SAG Award-winning American actor known for performances in period drama “Mansfield Park,” blockbuster “Jurassic Park III,” and the critically acclaimed “The Brutalist.”

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Adding another layer to his industry connections, Nivola is currently dating 22-year-old actress Iris Apatow, the youngest daughter of comedy kingpin Judd Apatow. Apatow herself has been in the spotlight since childhood and is now transitioning into more substantial roles.

While part of a new generation of Hollywood talent who grew up immersed in the filmmaking world, Nivola is not just another nepo baby riding his parents’ coattails, but one young actor methodically carving out a rather “uncomfortable” niche in the industry.

Nivola’s real-life comfort with discomfort

While the majority of Hollywood talent rides on good looks or likability, Nivola’s awkwardness leans towards authenticity, even if it’s the kind that can make viewers shift in their seats. 

In a move that surely had HBO’s legal team reaching for their phones, Nivola candidly admitted to breaking his NDA regarding his character’s shocking storyline (read: incest) in “The White Lotus” Season 3. In an interview with Variety, he confessed to spilling scene spoilers to practically everyone in his inner circle (his parents and girlfriend), save for his actress-sister May Nivola because, apparently, “she’s bad at keeping secrets.”

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The frank honesty of throwing his own sister under the bus for her loose lips only adds to Nivola’s growing reputation for uncomfortable authenticity, whether on- or off-screen. Particularly “that scene” that became an instant internet sensation, eliciting a mixture of shock, analysis, and memes that dominated entertainment discourse for weeks.

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So is the young Nivola set to become Hollywood’s master of discomfort? Is he the next McLovin or Napoleon Dynamite?

If these early roles and willingness to court controversy are any indication, the young actor seems poised to build a body of work that keeps audiences on edge.

And as Nivola continues to establish himself beyond both his family name and his breakthrough roles, all eyes are on what uncomfortable situation he’ll tackle next.