Nat Wolff

Wolff in 2013, photo by PR Photos

Birth Name: Nathaniel Marvin Wolff

Place of Birth: Los Angeles, California, United States

Date of Birth: December 17, 1994

Ethnicity:
*father – Ashkenazi Jewish
*mother – English, German, some Scottish, along with 1/256th Portuguese Azorean, and distant Welsh, Jersey/Channel Islander, and French

Nat Wolff is an American actor, singer, songwriter, guitarist, composer, keyboardist, and director. He is a member of pop rock duo Nat and Alex Wolff, with his brother, singer, actor, and director Alex Wolff. His acting roles include the films Peace, Love & Misunderstanding, Stuck in Love, Admission, Palo Alto, The Fault in Our Stars, Behaving Badly, Grandma, Ashby, Paper Towns, The Intern, In Dubious Battle, Death Note, Home Again, Rosy, Stella’s Last Weekend, The Kill Team, Semper Fi, Mortal, Body Cam, Mainstream, and Murder at Yellowstone City, and the series The Naked Brothers Band, also with his brother; The Stand, Joe vs. Carole, and The Consultant.

He is the son of musician Michael Wolff and actress and director Polly Draper. His mother spearheaded The Naked Brothers Band franchise, and created and showran the television series of the same name. A picture of Nat’s parents can be seen here. His uncle is venture capitalist Tim Draper, and his cousin is television personality and venture capitalist Jesse Draper, who is Tim’s daughter.

Nat’s father is Jewish, of Russian Jewish, Polish Jewish, and German Jewish descent. Nat’s upbringing has been described as “culturally Jewish.”

Nat’s mother has a significant amount of English ancestry, as well as a grandmother who was of German descent, and some Scottish roots. Also, one of Nat’s maternal great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfathers, Antonio de Zocieur, was Portuguese, born on Terceira Island in the Azores. This makes Nat of one eighth German and 1/512th Portuguese descent. Nat’s mother also has very distant Welsh, Jersey Channel Islander, and French, ancestry. Through his mother, Nat is a descendant of Mayflower passenger Francis Cooke, and of Captain Joseph Weld (1599-1646), one of the founders of the prominent Boston Brahmin Weld family of Massachusetts. Among Joseph’s other descendants are Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld and actress Tuesday Weld.

Nat’s paternal grandfather was Marvin Lee Wolff (the son of Ben Ernest Wolff and Sadie Blieden). Marvin was born in Mississippi. Ben was born in Louisville, Kentucky, to Jewish parents from Russia. Sadie was born in Indiana, also to Russian Jewish parents, Abraham Marcus Blieden and Frances Annie Aron/Aronovitz.

Nat’s paternal grandmother was Lise Bertha Silverman (the daughter of Daniel N. “Dan” Silverman and Hermina M. Ochs). Lise was born in New Orleans. Daniel was also born in Louisiana, and was the son of Nathan Silverman, who was a Polish Jewish immigrant, and of Caroline Weyl, who was a German Jewish immigrant, and was herself the daughter of Seligman Weyl and Rosalie. Nat’s great-grandmother Hermina was also born in Louisiana, the daughter of Louis Ochs, whose parents were German Jews, and of Bertha Davis, whose parents were also Jewish emigrants, her father from Russia and her mother from Germany.

Wolff in 2011, photo by PR Photos

Nat’s maternal grandfather is William Henry Draper III (the son of William Henry Draper II and Katherine Louise Baum). Nat’s grandfather William was born in New York, and is a venture capitalist and a civic leader of the United Nations Development Programme. Nat’s great-grandfather William was a diplomat, army officer, and banker, and was the son of William Henry Draper and Mary Emma Carey. Katherine was the daughter of George Baum and Julia Cook; all of Katherine’s grandparents (Henry Baum, Katharina Emrich, Adam Cook, and Ann J. Scholtz) were German.

Nat’s maternal grandmother was Phyllis Culbertson (the daughter of William Howard Culbertson and Phyllis Barnard Nichols). Nat’s grandmother Phyllis was born in New York, and was an administrator for the Peace Corps. William was the son of Claude Lanier Culbertson and Mabel Virginia Cosgrave. Nat’s great-grandmother Phyllis Nichols was the daughter of Clifford Nichols and Albertine Louise Barnard.

Nat’s matrilineal line can be traced to Sarah “Sally” Canfield, who was born, c. 1789, in Litchfield, Connecticut.

Sources: Genealogy of Nat Wolff – https://www.geni.com

Nat’s paternal grandfather, Marvin Lee Wolff, on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org

Obituary of Nat’s paternal grandmother, Lise Bertha (Silverman) Wolff Blumenfeld – http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com

Nat’s paternal great-grandfather, Daniel N. “Dan” Silverman, on the 1910 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org

Nat’s paternal great-grandmother, Hermina M. Ochs, on the 1900 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Hermina M. Ochs on the 1910 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org

Nat’s maternal great-grandmother, Katherine Louise Baum, on the 1910 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org

Obituary of Nat’s maternal grandmother, Phyllis (Culbertson) Draper – https://www.legacy.com

Nat’s mother Polly Draper in 2007, photo by Prphotos