In 2017, Elgort played the title character in Edgar Wright's action thriller Baby Driver, for which he received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.

After starring in Steven Spielberg's musical film West Side Story (2021), he portrayed Jake Adelstein in the crime series Tokyo Vice from 2022 to 2024.

[2][3] His parents are Arthur Elgort, a fashion photographer who has worked extensively for Vogue magazine[4][5] and Grethe Barrett Holby, an opera director.

[1][24][25] He started taking acting classes at age 12 and at LaGuardia, where he performed in a rendition of Hairspray with schoolmate Kyle Jean-Baptiste and starred in the school's productions of Guys and Dolls.

[6][26] During high school, in 2009, he appeared in Teen Vogue alongside Polish model Jac Jagaciak in an editorial photographed by his father.

[27] 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.

[28] 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.

[33] 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.

[35] 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 Chloë Grace Moretz.

[36] Elgort starred in the film Billionaire Boys Club, opposite Kevin Spacey, Cary Elwes, Emma Roberts and Taron Egerton and directed by James Cox.

[41] 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.

[43][44] Elgort next starred in Tokyo Vice, a television adaptation of journalist Jake Adelstein's non-fiction memoir for HBO Max.

[50][51][52] 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.