When it comes to movie careers; Jacob Batalon‘s got one of the fastest rises to fame we’ve seen in a pretty long time. From a college-going kid who just dropped out to one of the most exciting careers in Hollywood, Jacob’s seen a whirlwind of success when it comes to his life and career.
Born on 9 October 1996 in Honolulu, Hawaii, Jacob was a great kid growing up and he’s got five half-siblings, a brother and two sisters from his father’s side, and a brother and a sister from his mother’s side. The Ned Leeds actor attended Damien Memorial School, which is a catholic organization and this was the place where he got his early education.
Jacob Batalon is playing the character of ‘Ned Leeds’ in the Marvel-Sony Spider-Man movies.
Source: Wikipedia
After graduating from school, Jacob joined a community college, Kapi’olani Community College where he was studying Music Theory, but he knew the course was not for him, which is why he dropped out and moved to New York where he got into an acting school, New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts.
From studying Music Theory in Hawaii to getting cast in movies to the point where half of the movies in Jacob’s filmography are Marvel movies including the highest-grossing movie of all time in Hollywood history, it seems the choice to drop out of college was the right one for the actor.
Career Making Performances as ‘Ned Leeds’ in ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ and ‘Far From Home’
Jacob Batalon played Spider-Man’s best friend ‘Ned Leeds’ in the new Spider-Man series.
Source: Instagram @lifeisaloha
Marvel and Sony struck a deal when Amazing Spider-Man 2 failed miserably, Kevin Feige took his favorite character of all time, sprinkled it with fairy dust and voila, the end result was Spider-Man: Homecoming. It was Marvel which got the most faithful adaptation of Spider-Man on-screen, but the reason the movie was so successful was because of the people involved in front of the camera.
Tom Holland is the best Spider-Man, Zendaya was awesome also in her limited role in the first movie, the re-imagination of Flash played by Tony Revolori was also great, but the scene-stealing performance in the movie was by Jacob who was hired to play the character of Ned Leeds, Peter’s best friend.
Jacob Batalon and Angourie Rice’s characters were involved in a relationship in Spider-Man: Far From Home.
Source: Instagram
Ned calls himself the guy in the chair, someone who helps the hero by being far away and giving advice on an earpiece after he finds out about Peter‘s secret. Ned was a great comic relief in the movie and his bromance with Peter not only was great on-screen but the two actors, Tom and Jacob, became best friends in real life.
The character of Ned is a real sweetheart and it was brilliantly brought to life by Jacob and the amazing thing was, his character was made better even more in the second movie where Ned becomes romantically involved in a relationship with Angourie Rice‘s character Betty. The two were amazing together and the dynamic between the best friends, though changed, was still deep in the first billion-dollar grossing Spider-Man movie of all time.
Watch: The trailer for the second Spider-Man movie
There was separation happening between Sony and Disney, but now they are back together and Jacob recently said he wants to play the character of Hobgoblin in the future, there is a precedent of Ned becoming the character in the comics but the motivation is not there in the movie. So in the third movie, he will still probably be the guy in the chair and we are going to love the two characters of Peter and Ned playing off of each other.
Other Movies and TV Shows of His Short Career
Angourie Rice and Jacob Batalon appeared together in the movie 2018 movie ‘Every Day.’
Source: IMDb
The first career role of Jacob’s career was in the movie North Woods which was released in 2016, and he played the character of Cooper. Then came the casting in Spider-Man movie which changed his career (see above) and 2018 started with his casting in the movie Every Day, based on the book of the same name by David Levithan. (Fun Fact: This was the second time Angourie Rice and Jacob Batalon appeared in a movie together.)
Then the actor appeared in Blood Fest, which was well received by the critics, but the film was only screened for one night. The actor appeared in Avengers: Infinity War where he was responsible for one of the funniest moments in the whole movie. He appeared again at the end of Avengers: Endgame after being brought back to life by Tony, Peter and Ned share a heartfelt reunion at their school.
Jacob Batalon made a cameo appearance as ‘Ned Leeds’ in ‘Avengers: Infinity War.’
Source: Instagram
Another appearance in Spider-Man and now the actor is busy filming three different projects with The True Don Quixote Dish, Night School and Christmas romantic comedy movie Let It Snow.
Jacob’s Relationship Status, Does He Have a Girlfriend?
Jacob Batalon and Kelly were together at the premiere of Spider-Man: Far From Home.
Source: Instagram
The only relationship we’ve seen the actor involved in is in the movie Spider-Man: Far From Home. But there was one post on Instagram where we saw the actor getting cozy with his date for the premiere of the second Spider-Man movie. We checked and the girl also shared a similar photo from a different angle on her Instagram. When someone asked her how Jacob was able to get her, she neither confirmed nor denied their relationship.
The girl, whose first name is Kelly, played coy and it leads us to believe Jacob and Kelly are pretty close. She is an amazing and beautiful lady; they also look pretty as a couple, so if they confirm their relationship then it would be awesome to see more photos of the two together.
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