Gucci jacket, $7750, pants, $2780, bag, $5750, shoes, $1770, and necklace, $635.
Costa D’Angelo loves a character with a hint of darkness. Okay, more than a hint. He tells ELLE why, exactly, he thinks that is
PHOTOGRAPHED BY TED BELTON
STYLED BY NADIA PIZZIMENTI WORDS BY ANGELA LAW
ome creatives know exactly who they are from a young age: they dream of being writers, musicians or artists from the moment they can talk. But for the actor Costa D’Angelo, his childhood dreams looked a bit different.
“I actually wanted to be a [professional] soccer player for a long time,” he says from his sun-drenched balcony in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he’s currently filming the second season of We Were Liars. “My parents were pretty cool about it. They were like, ‘Mad, go do it.’” He quickly realised he wasn’t cut out for the early morning games in the dead of Melbourne’s winter, and an injury ended it all anyway, letting him off the hook. “It was such a great excuse to go all-in on acting,” he says, laughing with relief. And go all-in he did, ducking out of school early for acting classes and eventually spending five years formally honing his craft. “It was such a slog, but so much fun and so rewarding,” he recalls. “Melbourne is such a cool place to be involved in the arts, and now I get to do the same thing in other parts of the world, which I feel very fortunate about.”
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Gucci top, $970, jeans, $2180, jacket, $4170 (in hand), bag, $1450, shoes, $1630, and watch, $2650.
“I think the most interesting characters are the ones who are hiding things”
– COSTA D'ANGELO
PHOTOGRAPHED BY TED BELTON
STYLED BY NADIA PIZZIMENTI
EDITOR JESSICA BAILEY
VIDEOGRAPHER BOBBY LEON
WORDS BY ANGELA LAW
GROOMING CAROLINE LEVIN
SET DESIGN CHIARA PURDY FASHION ASSISTANT SARA LEWIS
PRODUCTION BY Andrew McGrath at KMZ Agency & Nicola Hanratty
WEARING GUCCI
This story appears in the SEPTEMBER 2026 Issue of
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LEFT Gucci jacket, $7750, pants, $2780, shoes, $1770, and necklace, $635. RIGHT Gucci jacket, $7350, top, $1090, pants, $2780, belt, $980, and necklace, $635.
LEFT Gucci shirt, $4770, shorts, $2680, bag, $5750, and watch, $4250. RIGHT Gucci shirt, $4770, shorts, $2680, and shoes, $1890.
Gucci top, $1750, jeans, $1690, bag, $5750, and watch, $3550.
LEFT Gucci jacket, $7750, pants, $2780, and necklace, $635. RIGHT Gucci top, $1750, jeans, $1690, and shoes, $1630.
Gucci top, $1750, jeans, $1690, and watch, $3550.
“I wouldn’t be anywhere without my mum — she’s the strongest person I know”
– COSTA D'ANGELO
This year, that hard work is paying off for the 25-year-old all at once. Fresh off the back of his breakout role in Tell Me Lies, a twisty and often dark college drama, D’Angelo captured the attention of the audio erotica app Quinn, and recorded a story titled Morally Gray, a nod to his Tell Me Lies character, Alex, who arrives on screen as a campus drug dealer, though we learn he is also a former foster sibling to one of the lead characters, Bree, and is navigating the aftermath of child sexual assault. Now, D’Angelo has just wrapped filming for Netflix’s upcoming hockey series, The Sticks, in which he plays Owen Boone, a high-school hockey player who’s navigating grief after a tragedy hit his small town of South Dorothy, Minnesota. And then there’s East of Eden, the Florence Pugh-led John Steinbeck novel adaptation that was his first international job, coming out this October.
As for We Were Liars, the series sees D’Angelo play Lawrence Pfefferman, a handsome teenager who shows up on Beechwood Island during the summer of 1999 and immediately works his way into the Sinclair family’s inner circle. The second season is an adaptation of E. Lockhart’s Family of Liars and a prequel to We Were Liars, the bestselling novel that follows 17-year-old Cadence “Cady” Sinclair Eastman as she returns to the WASPy world of Beechwood, New England, two years after suffering a traumatic brain injury that has left her with amnesia. She quickly finds herself on a mission to unpick all the lies she’s been told about her injury, and uncover her family’s secrets.
Ahead, D’Angelo chats about his upcoming roles, the most inspiring woman in his life and why he is repeatedly drawn to characters with a dark edge.
ELLE: What can you tell us about Lawrence Pfefferman? Costa D’Angelo: Pfeff. He’s a flirt, sometimes a cad. But also a dreamer, a charmer and a great finder of lemons. We meet him when he shows up to the infamous Beechwood Island. ELLE: How did you find joining an established show as a prequel? CD: It is different. There’s something about Pfeff, and about the world of being in ’99, that I find really compelling, because it’s almost like a myth — this unspoken thing no-one’s allowed to talk about in the present day. I think it’s so exciting to explore what that is; it feels kind of Shakespearean. It gives me a lot of freedom to play and to create my own thing. I think that’s really exciting. ELLE: Tell Me Lies, The Sticks and now We Were Liars all follow devastating storylines in different ways. Do you feel like you’re drawn to characters who explore those darker sides of the human experience, or has it just been coincidence? CD: I think the most interesting characters are the ones who are hiding things. I’ve been really fortunate to play characters who have pasts that are either tragic or really defining, and they’re the most interesting characters, because how do they go out into the world and explore and wake up and shave and get ready for work, go to school, try to fall in love? How do you do these things when there’s something else constantly happening in their head? ELLE: You’ve just wrapped filming The Sticks. What was that experience like for you? CD: It was the most rewarding experience of my life. It was the most challenging, emotionally and physically demanding thing I’ve ever done. But I was surrounded by the most incredible people and I was constantly inspired by them, and that got me through. It was a really tough shoot. Six months of blood, sweat and tears. Everyone really gave it their all.
ELLE: Can you tell us a bit about your character? CD: I played Owen Boone — Big Owen. He’s a young man who’s gone through high school, and after a really devastating incident happens in his life, and to the people around him in this small town, he’s forced to find a new way to survive. As soon as he steps on the ice, he’s an animal, but when he’s off the ice he has to really confront a lot of things. ELLE: There’s been a huge rise in hockey dramas over the past year, with Heated Rivalry and Off Campus, but it sounds like The Sticks is quite different. CD: I think people are going to be really surprised by the tone of the show and how unique it is. It’s a show I wish I’d had when I was growing up. I think if other films could describe it, it’d be Waves, Friday Night Lights and Manchester by the Sea combined. It’s a really heartbreaking story. ELLE: Let’s chat about East of Eden. How does it feel now that it’s about to be released? CD: I can’t believe it. It’s kind of surreal. It was the first thing I filmed internationally after drama school, and it feels like a lifetime ago. For it to come out now is such perfect timing, because that show means so much to me. It felt like the beginning of my career, in a way. I was surrounded by incredible people, and got to watch some of my favourite actors of all time work. I truly got thrown in the deep end and I felt so supported, so loved. I think Florence Pugh is going to deliver one of the best performances of the year.
ELLE: Let’s switch gears. Can you tell me about your grooming routine right now? CD: Oh gosh, do I reveal this? Okay, I’ll give you my grooming routine. This is all from my makeup artist; I just do what they tell me. So, I start off with a great cleanser, rub that on with hot water and always get the hot towel ready. Then an oat cleanser, like an oat scrub. And then a moisturiser and then sunscreen. ELLE: Good boy — wearing sunscreen is very important. CD: I am a good boy. ELLE: How would you describe your personal style? CD: At the moment I’ve got a bit of a uniform, which I think is good for me while travelling a lot — it’s less stressful. I love Trinity the Label from LA; Levi [Bent-Lee] is the founder, he’s great. Boots, bootcut jeans, a raglan tee and a good pair of vintage Armani glasses are what I’ve been rocking. The jewellery stack is very important, too. I’ve been finding cool markets here in Halifax where people create their own rings and other jewellery, and I think it’s really cool to travel to new places and pick out little pieces that remind you of where you’ve been. Honestly, I also love lounging. Mostly gym wear I find on eBay, [or pieces] like this old Gator’s Gym jumper my makeup artist on The Sticks gave me, which I wear all the time and love. ELLE: We flew the new Gucci autumn/winter 2026 menswear collection from New York especially for you. It definitely has a different aesthetic.
CD: I was over the moon when I saw [I’d be wearing] Demna’s Gucci collection. I’ve been following him for ages and it looked amazing. ELLE: Did you have any particular favourite pieces? CD: There was a white-on-white piece that was skin-tight and it looked really cool in the photos. The grey silk suit as well. It was perfect timing, too, because I’ve been training really hard for this show I’m doing; it all fit really nicely and accentuated everything. Some of the shots were maybe a bit too spicy for ELLE, but it was good. ELLE: The girlies are going to love it, don’t you worry. CD: Good! ELLE: Who is the woman in your life who’s inspired you the most? CD: My mum. She’s a rock star. She inspires me every single day. I wouldn’t be anywhere without my mum — she’s the strongest person I know and a constant inspiration. I don’t tell her enough. She’s my number one supporter in everything I do, the first person I tell everything to, all the good and all the bad. She’s such a lighthouse in my life. She’s all the way back in Australia, but I feel her love always. I get a good-morning text without fail. Every day, at 5.30pm on this side of the world, I’ll be waiting for a good-morning text from Mum. Mums make the world go round. ELLE: Who is one actor you’d love to work with? CD: Chase Infiniti is really great. I’d love to work with her. ELLE: You’ve achieved so much in the past couple of years. What’s the big dream right now? CD: Honestly, just to keep travelling the world, telling interesting stories, continuing to learn about myself and about the world and about all the feelings we feel. [If I can do that] I’ll be happy, whether that’s through movies, TV or theatre. That’s my dream.
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