All about Gavin Casalegno’s family: career, and love life

Gavin Casalegno plays Jeremiah in the new Amazon Prime series The Summer I Turned Pretty. In the show, Isabel ‘Belly’ Conklin has a crush on Jeremiah’s older brother Stephen and considers Jeremiah a close friend. However, Jeremiah harbors romantic feelings for Belly, but he finds it difficult to express those emotions. 

With an entire summer ahead of her at the idyllic Cousins Beach, Belly faces a tough choice: Jeremiah or Conrad. The series has given Gavin plenty of attention, but he isn’t a newcomer on the acting scene. He played young Damon in Vampire Diaries – which was also a series about two brothers chasing after one girl. 

Gavin Casalegno was born on 2nd September 1999 in Lewisville, Texas, into a Christian family. Casalegno is the oldest of three siblings and has a close relationship with his mom. 

“She’s such a rock in who I am and my foundation for everything that I’ve done as far as my career, my identity, everything,” Gavin told Popsugar. 

Casalegno told the Lovejoy High School Red Ledger that he got into acting through modeling:

“I was really young and didn’t know anything. My mom had a friend that recommended us to this agency and it started off modeling. I modeled for like four years and after that, I got my first audition and I wanted to see how my career goes.”

Gavin landed roles in TV shows and films like Noah, The Vampire Diaries, Nine Seconds, and The Unhealer, but he struggled to book major parts. Gavin told Popsugar that he was about to swap acting for real estate before auditioning for Jeremiah. 

“I was like, you know, this character is so similar to who I am, it would be a shame if I didn’t do it,” Casalegno said. Gavin hasn’t given up on his real estate dreams, but his priority right now is acting. He told Photobook magazine:

“I love doing what I do, and I know, at this time, this is what I want to be doing. I plan to get my real estate license at some point, but for where I am at right now, acting is my passion and focus.”

As Caselegno read Jeremiah’s role for The Summer I Turned Pretty, it felt like he was reading a book about his life. He told Popsugar:

“I actually told Jenny this the first time [I met] her. I was like, ‘Did you talk to my mom or something? How? Did you read my diary? What’s going on?’”

It was easy for Casalegno to play Jeremiah because he was reliving past experiences. Gavin told Seventeen that he read journal entries from his teenage days to better understand and portray Jeremiah. 

“I just really had to step back into my past and be like, ‘Okay, what was important to me?’” Gavin told the outlet. Gavin said that in The Summer I Turned Pretty, there’s a character for every type of teenager. He added:

“I feel like there’s a character that can be personal to everyone and I just so happened to get lucky with Jeremiah and it was just so much fun digging up the past and bringing it forth into what was Jenny’s beautiful creation.”

Casalegno is looking forward to carrying on Jeremiah’s story in season 2 of the show. He’ll get to play a character that he identifies with and hang out with the friends he met on set. 

Gavin told Seventeen that he and his co-stars Christopher Briney and Steven Kaufman clicked from the outset. He explained:

“It was a lot of fun just translating our off-screen relationship with the one we had in front of the screen. It was just so special to be able to grow with [the cast], they’re all just such talented and kind people.”

“All the hard work, blood, sweat, tears and endless night of laughter finally out for the world,” Gavin wrote alongside Instagram photos of his co-stars. “I couldn’t be more joyful and proud of these wonderful people.”

Unlike Jeremiah, who’s yet to figure out his love life, Gavin is in a stable relationship. He’s dated model and actor Larsen Thompson for five years. The pair flaunt their relationship on social media and appear to have a very tight bond. 

Gavin told Seventeen that he is a hopeless romantic who’ll go to great lengths to make romantic gestures. He told the publication that he secretly bought a plane ticket to surprise Thompson on her 16th birthday and fake proposed to her in front of her parents. He explained:

“Her parents brought her to some restaurant at Universal Studios and I jumped out of the corner and fake proposed with a Hershey’s kiss. Little did I know her dad was standing right there, and so that was the first time meeting him. It was hilarious. We laugh about it now.”

Gavin’s sexuality in real life is unclear, but his character in The Summer I Turned Pretty is bisexual. He told Seventeen that he enjoyed the show’s commitment to promoting diversity. 

“I think it’s so special,” Gavin said. “Jeremiah is always figuring out, more and more, who he is and that’s just a part of him. It’s a beautiful process, and I just have Jenny to thank for that completely.”

In mid-June, Gavin wrote on his Instagram story that fitness is his main priority as it boosts his mental, emotional, and physical health. Gavin also finds peace in listening to gospel music and reading the Bible. 

Casalegno told Popsugar that he views isolation as a form of self-care. Though everyone in Casalegno’s life hates it, Gavin occasionally switches off all connections to the outside world regardless of the consequences. He explained:

“They won’t hear from me. They’ll just be like, ‘Bro, like you have meetings,’ and I’m like, ‘Well too bad, I’m gone.’ So I definitely love just disconnecting. I think that’s so vital for my mental health, which has been so crazy during COVID-19.”

Gavin believes that people need to prioritize self-care. “Do your thing, because you know, at the end of the day, it’s your mental health that matters, and everything else, the world can wait,” he said.