Table of Contents
Most people first noticed Duke Nicholson’s face before they knew his name. He appeared on the cover of one of the most talked-about albums of 2019, standing next to Lana Del Rey, staring into the distance with the kind of effortless cool that usually takes years to develop. Then people looked him up, found out who his grandfather was, and assumed the rest of the story was obvious.
It is not obvious at all. In May 2026, Duke Nicholson is 26 years old, stepping into his first lead role in a major crime thriller, and doing it entirely on his own terms. This article covers everything: his family, his name, his path into acting, every film he has made, his relationship with Jack Nicholson, and where his career is heading right now.
Who Is Duke Nicholson?
Duke Nicholson is an American actor and the grandson of three-time Academy Award winner Jack Nicholson. For nearly 10 years, Duke Nicholson has hovered at the edges of the movie business, quietly shaping his own path as both an actor and aspiring director while nurturing a hardcore obsession with classic film.
He has occasionally popped up in unexpected places: as the cover model of Lana Del Rey’s 2019 hit album Norman Fucking Rockwell!, on the Venice Film Festival red carpet alongside Oscar Isaac and Jason Momoa, and as a memorably creepy carny in Jordan Peele’s Us.
Now, with his first lead role in the crime thriller The Deputy, he is stepping fully into the spotlight for the first time.
Quick Bio
| Detail | Information |
| Full Name | Duke Norfleet (known professionally as Duke Nicholson) |
| Date of Birth | 1999 |
| Age (May 2026) | 26 years old |
| Birthplace | Los Angeles, USA |
| Mother | Jennifer Nicholson (fashion designer) |
| Father | Mark Norfleet (retired pro surfer) |
| Grandfather | Jack Nicholson (actor) |
| Grandmother | Sandra Knight (actress) |
| Brother | Sean Norfleet |
| Named After | Duke Kahanamoku, legendary Hawaiian surfer |
| Height | 6 feet 2 inches |
| School | Wildwood, West Los Angeles |
| Breakthrough | Jordan Peele’s Us (2019) |
| Biggest Moment | Cover of Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell (2019) |
| Lead Role Debut | The Deputy (2026) |
| Estimated Net Worth | $500,000 to $1.5 million |
The Name: Why He Is Called Duke
Duke’s mother is Jennifer Nicholson, a fashion designer. His father is retired pro surfer Mark Norfleet. His parents met at Punahou School in Hawaii, which they attended alongside Barack Obama.
Duke confirmed he is named after the legendary Hawaiian surfer Duke Kahanamoku, the man credited with bringing surfing to the world. That is a name with genuine weight behind it. Duke Kahanamoku was an Olympic swimmer, a five-time Olympic medalist, and the figure most responsible for spreading surfing from Hawaii across the globe. Being named after him, by a father who was a professional surfer himself, tells you something about the values and world Duke Nicholson grew up in.
His legal last name is Norfleet, after his father. He uses Nicholson professionally, which is both honest and smart. It is the name people recognize. But as his career develops, more and more people are recognizing it because of him, not just because of his grandfather.
Early Life: A Film Nerd in Los Angeles
Duke Nicholson grew up in Los Angeles and attended Wildwood, a private school in West Los Angeles. From an early age, he was not drawn to sports or music the way many celebrity children are. He was drawn to film.
He tended to be happiest sitting wide-eyed at the back of cinema history classes. Director Nicholas Jarecki described him as “this really obsessed film nerd,” adding: “I don’t think you find too many 20-year-olds sitting there on a diet of Bertolucci and Nicholas Ray films.”
Luchino Bertolucci directed The Last Tango in Paris and The Conformist. Nicholas Ray directed Rebel Without a Cause. These are not films most teenagers seek out on their own. They are films studied in serious cinema courses. The fact that Duke found them at 15 and built his taste around them tells you the kind of actor and filmmaker he wants to be.
His Original Plan: Directing, Not Acting
Originally, Duke planned to direct. But then his friend Jack Kilmer, son of Val Kilmer and Joanne Whalley, introduced him to music-video director Grant Singer, who cast him in videos for acts like Slowdive. That led to Duke signing with a manager.
Duke said about his path: “It wasn’t assumed that I’d go into film. My interest in film was definitely there, but I didn’t really think about it as a career path until I was probably 15 or 16.”
Acting caught him sideways. He did not plan for it. He fell into it through music videos and then found that he was good at it and that he enjoyed it more than he expected.
Duke Nicholson’s Full Filmography
The Dandy Warhols: Catcher in the Rye (2016)
Duke’s very first screen credit. He previously appeared as Holden Caulfield, the narrator of J.D. Salinger’s novel Catcher in the Rye, in a music video for the Dandy Warhols single of the same name. Playing one of the most iconic characters in American literature as a teenager, in a music video for an indie rock band, is an unusual way to start a career. It is also very Duke Nicholson.
Us (2019): The Breakout Role
The film that introduced Duke Nicholson to mainstream audiences was Jordan Peele’s horror masterpiece Us. He played a memorably creepy carny in Jordan Peele’s Us.
Director Jordan Peele told Duke, “Have you seen The Shining? You’re my Lloyd,” referring to the spooky bartender from his grandfather’s most famous horror film. Duke recalled it as a coincidence. Peele had no idea the two actors were related when he cast them.
That detail matters. Jordan Peele, one of the most successful directors in modern Hollywood, cast Duke Nicholson based purely on what he saw in the room, not because of the family name. That is the kind of casting story a young actor needs to build real credibility.
Read more: Jennifer Nicholson: The Real Story of Jack’s Eldest Daughter
Norman Fucking Rockwell Album Cover (2019)
Lana Del Rey called Duke and said: “Hey, we’re doing the album cover tomorrow. You want to be on it?” Duke just went with it, saying he doesn’t try to analyze things too much.
The album, Norman Fucking Rockwell, was released in August 2019 and became one of the most critically praised records of that year. It received Grammy nominations and dominated critical year-end lists. Duke’s face, standing beside Lana on a boat, looking into the distance, became one of the most reproduced images of the music year. He did not sing a single note. He just showed up and became part of something that millions of people saw.
Crisis (2021)
Duke appeared in Crisis, a drug epidemic drama directed by Nicholas Jarecki, the same director who first recognized his talent. He played Derrick Millebran in the film. The film starred Gary Oldman, Armie Hammer, and Evangeline Lilly, placing Duke in a serious ensemble with experienced actors.
Traveling Light (2021)
He appeared as Sydney in Traveling Light in 2021. Another step in building a varied early filmography across different genres and directors.
Alone at Night (2022)
A smaller production that gave Duke experience working in different formats and building his range across both studio-adjacent and independent projects.
Pearl and Duke (2021 Short)
A short film in which he played a character named Duke, offering him creative space to experiment outside the pressures of feature film productions.
The Trainer (2024)
Duke worked on 2024’s The Trainer with Brad Pitt and Julia Fox. Appearing in a production alongside one of Hollywood’s biggest stars gave his career a significant profile boost heading into his first lead role.
In the Hand of Dante (2025)
Duke appeared at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival on September 3, 2025, for the premiere of In the Hand of Dante, directed by Julian Schnabel. The star-studded cast included Gal Gadot, Martin Scorsese, Gerard Butler, Al Pacino, Oscar Isaac, and Jason Momoa.
Standing on the Venice Film Festival red carpet alongside that cast, Duke Nicholson was no longer an emerging actor from a famous family. He was simply a member of a serious film ensemble at one of the world’s most prestigious film events.
Who Is Duke Nicholson?
Duke Nicholson is a 26-year-old American actor and the grandson of Jack Nicholson. He is the son of fashion designer Jennifer Nicholson and retired pro surfer Mark Norfleet. His breakthrough came in Jordan Peele’s 2019 horror film Us, and he became widely known as the face on the cover of Lana Del Rey’s 2019 album Norman Fucking Rockwell. His first lead role comes in the 2026 crime thriller The Deputy.
The Deputy: His First Lead Role
With The Deputy, a gritty, darkly comic crime thriller directed by longtime friend and collaborator Matt Sukkar, Nicholson takes center stage for the first time. Based on Victor Gischler’s novel and scripted by Narcos and Griselda co-creator Carlo Bernard, the film follows hapless part-time lawman Toby Sawyer, played by Nicholson, who is jolted awake one night and told to guard a corpse that promptly disappears. That kicks off a one-night saga where he is trying to track it down and discovers it is part of something much bigger.
Highland Film Group launched international sales on the title at Cannes, securing deals across Europe, Australia, and Canada, and continued sales at the 2025 American Film Market, ahead of a planned festival debut in 2026.
Duke described the character: “It’s one of those stories where someone who’s not equipped for a situation gets thrown into it, and you watch them grow and figure things out.” That description sounds simple. In skilled hands, it produces some of the best films ever made. Think early Coen brothers, a comparison that the film’s own promotional material uses.
The film was produced by Andrew Stevens, producer of The Boondock Saints and The Pledge, which was a late-career standout for his grandfather, Jack. That connection is a small, satisfying detail. The same producer who worked with Jack Nicholson late in his career is now helping launch his grandson’s first lead role.
The Real Story: What Duke Nicholson Did That Most People Miss
Here is what competitors writing about Duke Nicholson consistently overlook.
Most second-generation or third-generation Hollywood figures use their family connections directly. They get meetings because of who their parent or grandparent is. They get roles because a director owes someone a favor. They build careers on borrowed credibility.
Duke Nicholson’s path went differently. Jordan Peele cast him without knowing who his grandfather was. The Shining comparison came after casting, not before. Lana Del Rey was his friend before she was his career opportunity. The music video work came through his own social connections, not family industry calls.
He and his grandfather don’t talk about acting much. Instead, they watch sports together.
That is the detail that tells the whole story. Jack Nicholson, one of the most celebrated screen actors in history, has a grandson who is becoming an actor, and they talk about basketball rather than the craft. Duke is not building his career on his grandfather’s advice or network. He is building it the slow, quiet way: through his own friendships, his own taste, and his own work in rooms where people do not necessarily know whose grandson he is.
Duke Nicholson and Jack Nicholson: The Family Dynamic
Jack Nicholson is 88 years old in May 2026. He officially retired from acting in 2010 and has kept a very low public profile since then.
Duke describes Thanksgiving at his grandfather’s Mulholland Drive compound as usually pretty small: “Me, my Uncle Ray, my Aunt Lorraine, my mom.” He has spoken warmly about his grandfather while being careful not to trade on that warmth publicly.
Duke’s original aspiration was to direct, and his relationship with his grandfather did not push him toward acting. His interest in film was there, but acting was not assumed to be his path.
The picture that emerges is of a young man who is genuinely close to his famous grandfather at a human level, while keeping that relationship entirely separate from his professional life. He does not drop the name in audition rooms. He does not position himself as the heir to a legacy. He shows up, does the work, and lets the work be what it is.
What Movies Has Duke Nicholson Been In?
Duke Nicholson’s film credits include Us (2019), directed by Jordan Peele; Crisis (2021); Traveling Light (2021); Alone at Night (2022); The Trainer (2024), alongside Brad Pitt; In the Hand of Dante (2025), with Oscar Isaac and Jason Momoa; and The Deputy (2026), his first lead role. He also appeared on the cover of Lana Del Rey’s 2019 album Norman Fucking Rockwell.
Duke Nicholson’s Family: Parents, Brother, and Roots
His Mother: Jennifer Nicholson
Jennifer Nicholson is a fashion designer who built her own career entirely separate from her father’s Hollywood fame. She launched her fashion label in the early 2000s, showed at New York Fashion Week in September 2003, and owned boutiques in Santa Monica, Venice, and later Ojai, California. Duke grew up watching his mother build and rebuild creative businesses through her own talent. That model of independent creative work clearly influenced him.
His Father: Mark Norfleet
Mark Norfleet is a retired professional surfer. He and Jennifer met at Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii, the same school Barack Obama attended. The two divorced in 2003, when Duke was around four years old. His father named him after Duke Kahanamoku, which tells you something about how seriously Mark Norfleet took Hawaiian surfing culture and history.
His Brother: Sean Norfleet
Duke’s older brother Sean Norfleet works as a DJ and music producer. The two brothers represent very different creative paths within the same family.
Duke Nicholson’s Net Worth and Career Finances
Duke Nicholson’s estimated net worth sits between $500,000 and $1.5 million in May 2026, reflecting income from his film roles, music video work, and modeling appearances, including his Louis Vuitton shoot.
These numbers will rise significantly if The Deputy performs well at festivals and in distribution. A lead role in a crime thriller with international sales already secured across Europe, Australia, and Canada is a meaningful commercial step. If the film finds a streaming home or theatrical distribution in major markets, Duke Nicholson’s name recognition will expand well beyond the audience that currently knows him through his grandfather or the Lana Del Rey album cover.
Duke Nicholson Career Timeline
| Year | Event |
| 1999 | Born in Los Angeles, California |
| 2016 | First screen credit: Dandy Warhols music video as Holden Caulfield |
| 2019 | Breakout role in Jordan Peele’s Us |
| 2019 | Appears on cover of Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell album |
| 2021 | Appears in Crisis, Traveling Light, and Pearl and Duke |
| 2022 | Appears in Alone at Night |
| 2024 | Appears in The Trainer alongside Brad Pitt |
| Sept. 2025 | Red carpet at Venice Film Festival for In the Hand of Dante |
| Nov. 2025 | Hollywood Reporter interview about The Deputy at the American Film Market |
| 2026 | The Deputy planned festival debut; first lead role in a feature film |
FAQ: Everything People Ask About Duke Nicholson
Who is Duke Nicholson?
Duke Nicholson is an American actor, the son of fashion designer Jennifer Nicholson, and the grandson of Jack Nicholson. He is known for his role in Jordan Peele’s Us, for appearing on the cover of Lana Del Rey’s album Norman Fucking Rockwell, and for his upcoming lead role in the crime thriller The Deputy.
How old is Duke Nicholson?
Duke Nicholson was born in 1999. He is 26 years old as of May 2026.
Who are Duke Nicholson’s parents?
His mother is Jennifer Nicholson, a fashion designer, and his father is Mark Norfleet, a retired professional surfer. His parents met at Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii. They divorced in 2003.
Who is Duke Nicholson’s grandfather?
His maternal grandfather is Jack Nicholson, the three-time Academy Award-winning actor. His maternal grandmother is Sandra Knight, a former actress who was Jack Nicholson’s only wife.
Why is he called Duke?
He is named after Duke Kahanamoku, the legendary Hawaiian surfer who is credited with introducing surfing to the world. His father, Mark Norfleet, was a professional surfer and named his son in honor of Kahanamoku.
What was Duke Nicholson’s first big film?
His breakthrough came in Jordan Peele’s horror film Us in 2019. Jordan Peele cast him without knowing who his grandfather was, and later told him he reminded him of the character Lloyd from The Shining, his grandfather’s most famous horror film.
Did Duke Nicholson appear on a Lana Del Rey album?
Yes. He appears on the cover of Lana Del Rey’s 2019 album Norman Fucking Rockwell. Lana Del Rey called him the day before the shoot and asked him to join. The album received Grammy nominations and wide critical acclaim.
What is The Deputy?
The Deputy is a gritty, darkly comic crime thriller directed by Matt Sukkar, scripted by Carlo Bernard, a co-creator of Narcos and Griselda. It stars Duke Nicholson as a part-time lawman named Toby Sawyer who is left to guard a dead body that then goes missing. It is Duke’s first lead role in a feature film, with international sales already secured across multiple markets heading into its 2026 festival debut.
Has Duke Nicholson worked with any major stars?
Yes. He appeared in The Trainer alongside Brad Pitt and Julia Fox in 2024. He also appeared in In the Hand of Dante, directed by Julian Schnabel, alongside a cast that included Oscar Isaac, Jason Momoa, Al Pacino, Martin Scorsese, Gal Gadot, and Gerard Butler.
Does Duke Nicholson have a close relationship with Jack Nicholson?
Yes. Duke has described his grandfather warmly in interviews and has spoken about family Thanksgivings at Jack’s Mulholland Drive compound. He has noted that they do not talk much about acting, preferring instead to watch sports together. He has kept the relationship clearly separate from his professional career.
Did Jordan Peele know Duke Nicholson was Jack Nicholson’s grandson when he cast him?
No. Jordan Peele cast Duke without knowing who his grandfather was. After casting him, Peele told Duke he reminded him of Lloyd, the eerie bartender Jack Nicholson plays in The Shining, calling it a coincidence.
What school did Duke Nicholson attend?
Duke Nicholson attended Wildwood, a private school in West Los Angeles. He has been described by directors who knew him as a teenager as a serious film nerd, consuming classic cinema from directors like Bertolucci and Nicholas Ray from a young age.
What Duke Nicholson’s Story Actually Shows
Duke Nicholson has spent six years doing something genuinely difficult in Hollywood: building a career at his own pace, on his own terms, in the shadow of one of the most famous names in cinema history.
He did not rush it. He started with music videos. He took a small role in a Jordan Peele film and made it memorable. He stood on a Lana Del Rey album cover and let the image speak without turning it into a personal brand campaign. He walked the Venice Film Festival red carpet and wore a simple suit. He gave careful interviews to The Hollywood Reporter, twice, years apart, without saying anything he would need to take back.
In May 2026, The Deputy is his moment. His first lead role, in a film with real commercial structure and international backing, directed by a friend, written by serious television talent, sold at Cannes. If the work holds up, and everything about how he has moved through the industry suggests he has thought carefully about that, Duke Nicholson will stop being primarily known as Jack Nicholson’s grandson.
He will be known as Duke Nicholson. That has been the plan all along.
For more background on the Nicholson family’s Hollywood legacy, see the Jack Nicholson Wikipedia page.