Nico Hiraga Is Your Favorite Pop Star’s Favorite Heartthrob

Nico Hiraga is ready for his next step. After starring in films like Booksmart, Moxie, and most recently Sweethearts alongside Kiernan Shipka, the 27-year-old actor is prepared for whatever Hollywood has to offer him next. Acting wasn’t his original game plan, though.

Growing up in San Francisco, California, Hiraga fell in love with skateboarding when he was 10. “I went to a middle school where no one skated, and everyone was kind of very book-smart,” he tells me over Zoom, while lounging on his couch in a cozy hoodie and beanie. “At the time, skateboarding was kind of the rebellious thing to do, so I was like, sh*t, that kind of fits the aesthetic.” Hiraga’s current aesthetic is almost stereotypical chill skater bro. He’s so relaxed while chatting from his San Francisco home on this cloudy afternoon that it feels more like catching up with an old friend over FaceTime.

But a skating injury at 19 forced him to give acting a shot to stay busy. Unlike some actors who go years before booking anything, Hiraga says he got “super lucky” and lined up a few projects right away. “I was like, ‘Wait, is it supposed to be this quick and simple?’”

By 21, he landed a breakout role as Tanner in Olivia Wilde’s 2019 comedy Booksmart with a who’s who cast of young Hollywood: Kaitlyn Dever, Beanie Feldstein, and Molly Gordon. “It’s such a stacked cast,” he says. “When I went into it, I had no idea who any of these people were. I didn’t even know who Olivia was.”

Looking back now, Hiraga calls it “one of the best projects.” While it’s been a few years, he still keeps up with his Booksmart castmates. “I talk to Kaitlyn all the time. She’s like my sister, I love her to death,” he says. He even tells me he’s thought about getting the Last of Us Season 2 star’s advice on an upcoming audition that’s “really gnarly and hard,” though he’d rather just ask about her love life and what she’s got going on.

Sabrina’s a homie. I’m surprised that she thought of me for this, but I was super stoked when it came about.

As for this big project, Hiraga doesn’t share any details about the potential role, but says it’s a change from his go-to comedic, chill, and charming characters, who often skate as well. However, Hiraga’s upcoming films won’t involve any of that. He says one of his upcoming projects is more dramatic than what his fans are used to, so skateboarding is “not even in the f*cking vicinity.”

While Hiraga can leave his board behind to move past what people first think of him (“If you know Nico Hiraga, the first three things you think about are: Japanese, San Francisco, and skateboarding”), he wouldn’t want to avoid his ethnicity. As a proud Japanese American, he’s “stoked” to be part of much-needed representation in Hollywood. Not only is he starring in films, but he’s among the few Asian leading men in rom-coms. “I always thought that Charles Melton was killing it as being the Asian heartthrob in Hollywood, but at this party, he came up to me and was like, ‘Yo, man, I see what you’re doing,’” he says. Getting that recognition from the May December star and also from the Asian community online has been humbling for Hiraga and pushes him to keep going.

Another AAPI artist who has shown love to Hiraga is Olivia Rodrigo. In 2021, the Guts singer reached out to the North Hollywood actor to ask him to appear as one of her friends in the “Brutal” music video. “I was surprised she wanted me to work on it,” he says. “Olivia’s great. She’s so sweet.”

Recently, Sabrina Carpenter asked him to star in her Nonsense Christmas special on Netflix as an Ebenezer Scrooge-like character who is visited by the spirits of ghosted past (Carpenter), present (Quinta Brunson), and future (Cara Delevingne). “Sabrina’s a homie,” he says. “I’m surprised that she thought of me for this, but I was super stoked when it came about. It’s just another cool thing under the belt.”

Basically, you could say that Hiraga is your favorite pop star’s favorite heartthrob. One fan even tweeted, “The Nico Hiraga music cinematic universe is very dear to me” — but Hiraga equates that to knowing more people in the music industry than Hollywood. He grew up with Tyler, the Creator, and the Chromakopia rapper even appeared in Hiraga’s 2017 short film Summer of ’17 with his skate crew, Illegal Civilization. And while he’d want to work on another project together, Hiraga says he’d like to add Daft Punk to his list of MCU (music cinematic universe) credits next.

What he’s manifesting for himself the most, though, is an action film à la Tom Cruise. “I’ve always been really athletic, so being able to do any kind of sh*t in a film that is top-tier is what I want to do,” he says. “I wanted to be a stuntman growing up, so I’m looking for something action-packed with a little bit of Japanese in it.”

Hiraga may not be starring in the next Mission Impossible, but he’s kept himself busy with projects like Amy Landecker’s For Worse, which premiered at the South by Southwest film festival and follows in the trend of movies like Babygirl, The Idea of You, and Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy where a woman dates a much-younger man (played by Hiraga). He’s also planning a surf trip to Costa Rica with his cousins soon, but he says that may have to shift. “I could get called for these movies at any time.”

In the meantime, you can likely find the in-demand and rising star skateboarding around San Fran or grabbing his go-to pho order: chicken pho with extra Sriracha.