Ella Bleu Travolta – the 20-year-old daughter of John Travolta, 66, and the late Kelly Preston – is known for being a talented actress and doting daughter to her parents. The brunette beauty often shares social media posts that reveal her feelings about her family, including one that admitted she’s “forever grateful” for her father on Father’s Day in June, and one that called her mom “courageous, strong, beautiful and loving” shortly after her death from breast cancer at the age of 57 in July, and they’ve been warming the hearts of fans everywhere. Here’s what you should know about the young starlet who’s been in the spotlight in good times and bad.
1. She is her parents’ middle child. Ella isn’t John and Kelly’s first child. She had an older brother, Jett Travolta, who tragically died in January 2009, at the young age of 16. Jett – who was the spitting image of his dad – had a seizure while the family was vacationing in the Bahamas. John and Kelly went on to have a third child, another son, Benjamin, in November 2010.
2. She is an actress and co-starred with John in the 2019 thriller The Poison Rose. The father and daughter were also joined by Morgan Freeman in the film, which is about a detective who takes on what looks like a missing person case but is eventually drawn into a bunch of crimes. Ella also had a small role in her dad’s 2009 film, Old Dogs, which also starred the late Robin Williams.
3. Ella joined her dad for a sweet dance to honor her mom. John took to Instagram just a month after Kelly’s passing in Aug. to share the lovely video that showed them swaying to music in what appeared to be a restaurant, which can be seen below. “My daughter @ella.travolta and I dancing in memory of momma. One of Kelly’s favorite things, dancing with me,” John’s caption for the post read.
4. Ella has wanted to be an actress from a young age. “Since I was very little, I’ve loved performing, singing, dancing and putting on shows at home for my family and friends,” she told PEOPLE in May 2019. Her dad John gushed to HollywoodLife about her talent in 2017 “Ella is fabulous,” the proud father said. “Yes, I want her [to pursue acting] because she is so good at it. She is such a good performer.”
5. Ella said her dad John once embarrassed her in front of Taylor Lautner, who just happened to be her crush. “Taylor Lautner was coming over to the house and I loved him. Team Jacob for sure,” she said on Jimmy Kimmel Live on May 23, referring to the actor’s Twilight character. “And my friends and I were looking up pictures of him, just sort of researching him. Like, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s coming…’ And then Taylor gets there, and his family as well, so I was researching about them too, just to learn… Then, the first thing [my dad] says to them is, ‘Oh, Ella was just looking you guys up on the internet.’” Ella admitted that her reaction was probably that of most teens – her face went “bright red.”