Taj Cross Age: How Old He Is Now and How Old He Was in PEN15
Published on: October 24, 2026
Written By
Faye Smith
Reviewed By
Richard Dennis
Taj Cross is 22 years old. He was born on 11 February 2004 in Venice, California. He turned 22 in February 2026.
He is best known as Sam Zablowski in the Hulu comedy PEN15, a role he took at 14 with no acting career behind him, and he has worked steadily since, most recently in a feature released this August.
How Old Is Taj Cross?
He is 22. Born on 11 February 2004, he celebrated his twenty-second birthday in February 2026 and will turn 23 in February 2027. His star sign is Aquarius.
Taj Cross: Quick Facts
| Full name | Taj Cross |
|---|---|
| Date of birth | February 11, 2004 |
| Age | 22 |
| Star sign | Aquarius |
| From | Venice, California |
| Known for | Sam Zablowski in PEN15 |
| Age when PEN15 premiered | 14 |
| Occupation | Actor, dancer, painter |
| Sister | Camille, older |
| First screen credit | The Rookie, 2018 |
| Latest film | The Wrong Girls, August 2026 |
| Acting training | Second City, Ruskin Group Theatre, Margie Haber Studio |
Taj Cross Age by Year
Because his career began when he was still a young teenager, the question people usually want answered is how old he was at a particular moment rather than how old he is today. The table below sets out both.
How Old He Was Each Year
| Year | His age | What he was working on |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 14 | First screen credit in The Rookie; PEN15 season one in production |
| 2019 | 15 | PEN15 premiered February 8, three days before his 15th birthday |
| 2020 | 16 | PEN15 season two, part one, arrived September 18 |
| 2021 | 17 | Animated special in August, series finale December 3, plus Young Rock |
| 2022 | 18 | Between screen projects |
| 2023 | 19 | Big Boys premiered at BFI Flare in London on March 18 |
| 2024 | 20 | Big Boys reached US cinemas on May 31 |
| 2025 | 21 | The short film WassupKaylee played the festival circuit |
| 2026 | 22 | The Wrong Girls released on August 14 |
His birthday falls in early February, so for most of any given year he is the age shown.
How Old Was He in PEN15?
He was 14 when the show arrived.
PEN15 premiered on 8 February 2019, three days before his fifteenth birthday. Season one was in production ahead of that, so he filmed the bulk of his first season at 14. In an interview published around the premiere he was described as fourteen years old, which matches the birth date precisely.
The series then ran for nearly three more years. By the time of the finale he was 17, which means he played the same middle schooler across four years of his own adolescence.
His Age in PEN15 Season 2
He was 16 when season two began and 17 when it finished.
Season two was split. The first seven episodes landed on 18 September 2020, when he was 16. An animated special followed on 27 August 2021, by which time he had turned 17. The final seven episodes, ending with the series finale, arrived on 3 December 2021, still 17.
So across the show’s full run he went from 14 to 17, which is the span that separates a ninth grader from a high school senior.
How Old Sam Was Supposed to Be
Sam Zablowski is a 13-year-old seventh grader throughout, as are the other kids in his year.
That gap is the point of the show’s central joke, though it works in the opposite direction for the adults. Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle, who created the series and play 13-year-old versions of themselves, were 31 when season one began. Cross was genuinely close to the age he was playing, which is part of why the carpool and classroom scenes land the way they do: the adult leads are performing adolescence while the actors around them are living it.
By the final episodes the arrangement had reversed slightly. He was 17 playing 13, while his co-leads were in their mid-thirties doing the same thing.
Who Plays Sam in PEN15?
Sam Zablowski is played by Taj Cross. The character is a carpool friend of both leads who develops a crush on Maya, and he becomes one of the show’s most consistent presences outside the two creators.
The name causes a recurring mix-up. Sam Zablowski is the character, not the actor, and at least one widely used profile lists it as his real name.
The character also has a real-world origin. Sam is based on Sam Zvibleman, a writer and director on the series, and Cross has described the brief he was given with some affection, saying that all he had to do was “step up my douchiness a little bit and step down my coolness and Sam is born.”
Where He Grew Up
He is from Venice, California, which put him inside the Los Angeles casting system from the start. Growing up in a beach neighbourhood a short drive from the studios is the sort of accident of geography that explains how a teenager with no credits ends up auditioning for a Hulu series at 14.
His Family
His mother is Christena Karras, who founded an interior design studio and has worked as a stage performer. His father is Jake Cross. His parents separated and his mother later remarried.
He has one sibling, an older sister named Camille, and a dog called Mocha. The family has stayed largely out of public view, which is unusual for a child actor’s household and appears to have been deliberate.
How He Was Cast Without Acting Experience
This is the part of the story worth knowing, because he was not a child actor working his way up through commercials and guest spots.
PEN15 was effectively his first significant job. He had a small television credit in The Rookie in 2018 and little else, and he arrived on a set run by two writer-performers who had spent years developing the show. He has said he was given no particular guidance from the cast and largely worked it out as he went.
The role came with an unusual demand for a 14-year-old. He had to play comedy opposite two adults performing as children, in scenes built around teenage humiliation, while being the correct age for the part himself. He also had to do it without the reference points an experienced young actor would have.
Shortly after being cast he took up painting, which he mentioned in interviews at the time and has kept up since.
His Training as an Actor and Dancer
Whatever he lacked in credits he made up for in classroom hours.
He has trained at Second City, the improv institution that produced much of American sketch comedy, at the Margie Haber Studio, which specialises in audition technique, and with the Ruskin Group Theatre Company in Santa Monica. He also trained in dance at DC Dance Centre and works as a dancer as well as an actor, alongside earlier stage work.
That combination, improv plus audition craft plus movement, is a fairly deliberate education for comedy, and it shows in the physical timing of his PEN15 scenes.
Taj Cross Movies and TV Shows
Six credits across eight years, from a one-off television part at 14 to a studio-distributed feature at 22.
Movies and TV Shows
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | The Rookie | Abel | Television, his first credit |
| 2019 to 2021 | PEN15 | Sam Zablowski | Hulu, 25 episodes across two seasons |
| 2021 | Young Rock | Gabe | Television, five episodes |
| 2023 to 2024 | Big Boys | Will | Feature film, 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes |
| 2025 | WassupKaylee | Jackson | Short film, festival release |
| 2026 | The Wrong Girls | Kai | Feature film released by Neon |
Big Boys and the Critical Turn
The project that changed how he was regarded was Big Boys, Corey Sherman’s debut feature, in which he plays Will.
The film follows Jamie, a 14-year-old on a weekend camping trip with his older brother Will, their cousin Allie, and Allie’s new boyfriend. Cross plays the brother, the one doing the teasing, in a story that belongs to the younger boy. It is a supporting role in a small film, and it put him in something that critics took seriously.
Big Boys premiered at BFI Flare in London on 18 March 2023, played Provincetown, Outfest and Cleveland, and reached American cinemas on 31 May 2024. It holds 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 31 critics with a 7.6 average, and 80 on Metacritic. The Guardian gave it five stars and called it delicate and subtly magical. It was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards and for a GLAAD Media Award.
He was 19 at the premiere and 20 by the US release.
What He Is Working On Now
His most recent work is The Wrong Girls, released on 14 August 2026, in which he plays Kai.
It is the directorial debut of Dylan Meyer, distributed by Neon, and it is a considerable step up in company. The cast is led by Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat, with LaKeith Stanfield, Tony Hale, Geena Davis and Kate McKinnon, and voice work from Seth Rogen, Kumail Nanjiani and Cate Blanchett. The film is a stoner comedy about two codependent friends caught in a case of mistaken identity, and it sits at 61 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
Before that he appeared as Jackson in WassupKaylee, a 2025 short directed by Pepi Ginsberg, which played Palm Springs ShortFest, the Nashville Film Festival and the Landshut Short Film Festival.
The pattern since PEN15 is a deliberate one: independent features, shorts and festival work rather than a quick move into teen television. At 22, with a 100 percent reviewed film and a Neon release behind him, he has built the kind of record that tends to precede larger parts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Short answers to the questions asked most often about his age and career.
How old is he right now?
He is 22. He was born on 11 February 2004 and turned 22 in February 2026.
When is his birthday?
11 February. He was born in 2004, which makes him an Aquarius.
How old was Taj Cross in PEN15?
He was 14 when the series premiered on 8 February 2019, three days before his fifteenth birthday, and he filmed season one at 14. He was 17 by the series finale in December 2021.
How old was he in PEN15 season 2?
He was 16 when the first half of season two arrived in September 2020 and 17 when the final episodes were released in December 2021.
How old was he in 2019?
He turned 15 on 11 February 2019, three days after the show premiered. He spent most of that year at 15.
How old is Sam from PEN15 in real life?
The actor is 22. The character, Sam Zablowski, is written as a 13-year-old seventh grader throughout the series.
Who plays Sam in PEN15?
Taj Cross. Sam Zablowski is the character’s name, which some profiles mistakenly publish as the actor’s real name.
What movies and TV shows has he been in?
The Rookie in 2018, PEN15 from 2019 to 2021, Young Rock in 2021, Big Boys in 2023 and 2024, the short WassupKaylee in 2025, and The Wrong Girls in 2026.
What is he doing now?
He appeared as Kai in The Wrong Girls, released on 14 August 2026, a comedy directed by Dylan Meyer and distributed by Neon with Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat leading the cast.
How tall is he?
A figure of 5 feet 4 inches circulates, but it is unverified and appears to date from when he was a young teenager. No current measurement has been published, and he has grown up considerably since PEN15 was cast.
Does he have a girlfriend?
Nothing about his relationships has been made public. He keeps his personal life off social media, and speculation about it, including questions prompted by his role in Big Boys, where he plays the older brother rather than the film’s central character, is not supported by anything he has said.
