Meet Caleb Landry Jones: The Texas-Born Actor Behind the New ‘Dracula: A Love Tale’
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If you’ve been scrolling past trailers for Dracula: A Love Tale and wondering who that intense, captivating actor in the title role is, allow us to introduce you to Caleb Landry Jones — a versatile performer whose career has quietly become one of the most impressive in modern cinema.
The film, directed by Luc Besson, premiered in the US on February 6, 2026, and centers on the love story between Dracula and his beloved Elisabeta, played by Zoë Bleu. The on-screen chemistry between Jones and Bleu is striking — the kind that will have audiences believing in fate and true love. But what about Jones’ life off-screen? Does the actor have a love story of his own?
A Private Life With Partner Katya Zvereva
The answer is yes. Jones has a partner named Katya Zvereva, who is a Russian artist. The couple has one child together, though they are incredibly private about their personal lives. It’s unclear when they first met or started dating.
Born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in 1990, Zvereva is an artist who received a Master’s of Fine Art from the New York Academy of Art in 2016. Beyond those details, the couple keeps their relationship and family life largely out of the public eye.
His Rise to Fame
Jones’ journey to leading man status has been anything but conventional. Born in Garland, Texas, 15 miles northeast of Dallas, he launched his acting career with a small role in the 2007 Academy Award-winning film No Country for Old Men.
From that early start, Jones steadily built a reputation through a string of memorable supporting performances. He first gained recognition for his supporting roles as Banshee in X-Men: First Class (2011), Jeremy Armitage in Get Out (2017), Jack Hicks in The Florida Project (2017), and Red Welby in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017). His work in the latter earned him a SAG Award.
Jones then transitioned into leading roles that showcased his range. His leading roles include Ty Carter in The Outpost (2019), and Martin Bryant in Nitram (2021), which earned him a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor and a AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. He later starred in Luc Besson’s Dogman (2023) and Dracula (2025).
Bringing Dracula to Life — On His Own Terms
Playing one of fiction’s most iconic characters could feel daunting, especially with so many legendary portrayals already in the cultural consciousness. But Jones found a way to make the role his own.
“At some point, you just can’t think about it anymore,” Jones told MySA about past Dracula portrayals. “You have to find out what [the character] is for your film, and focus on, ‘This is your costume. This is your horse. This is your armor. This is your castle.’”
In the film, Jones plays the title character, who is initially introduced to viewers as a 15th-century prince. After he denounces God for the death of his wife, he is reborn as the vampire Dracula. Jones portrays the fierce warrior Prince Vlad of Wallachia, who goes on to become the mythical Dracula. In the film, Jones works opposite Christoph Waltz and Zoë Bleu Sidel, who plays Dracula’s wife, Elisabeta.
Besson was not particularly interested in the story of Dracula, but instead reimagined the film specifically around Jones — a testament to the director’s belief in the actor’s singular talent.
Besson’s vision explores the love that was ripped away from Dracula and how that loss led him to renounce God and live for an eternity as his punishment. The love story at the heart of the film is anything but restrained.
“But the love is very much mad about each other, emphasis on the mad part, absolutely eating each other up, devouring one another for every moment that they are together,” Jones told Collider, and that madness carries into the future as Dracula searches for his lost love through reincarnation.
Not Just an Actor: Jones’ Music Career
What many moviegoers may not realize is that Jones is also a musician with a growing body of work. He began his music career as a drummer for the worship band in his local church. By the age of 17, he started writing songs on his Casio keyboard. At 19, he formed the experimental folk-rock band Robert Jones with Robert Hudson and A.J. Durham.
In May 2020, Jones released his debut studio album, The Mother Stone, through Sacred Bones Records. He has since released three more albums: Gadzooks Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 in 2021 and 2022, and Hey Gary, Hey Dawn in 2024.
If you haven’t seen Dracula: A Love Tale yet, now is the time to grab your tickets — and to get acquainted with the remarkable actor at the center of it all.
