Talent runs in the Travolta family.
Ella Bleu Travolta, the only daughter of actors John Travolta and the late Kelly Preston, proves that point on the big screen — and beyond. An actress and singer, the rising star, just released her first EP, “Colors of Love,” and she already has a superfan.
It’s none other than her famous father.
Read on to learn more about the entertainer the “Grease” legend admires so much.
She’s a middle child
Nearly nine years after “The Experts” co-stars Travolta and Preston wed, the couple welcomed Ella Bleu to the world on April 3, 2000.
“To the sweetest girl in the world. You are magical in all that you do,” Preston wrote in a 2020 Instagram post devoted to her daughter. The sweet sentiment accompanied a throwback bath-time pic of the mother-daughter duo.
As for Dad, he raved to People magazine in 2019, “She is her own person. She is gracious, generous, poised, graceful and gorgeous. I don’t know how she came to be, and I don’t take any credit other than just adoring her. And maybe that’s a valid contribution.”
Ella was baby No. 2 for the couple, who’d celebrated the arrival of their first son, Jett Travolta, eight years before her birth, and their second son, Benjamin, 10 years after her birth.
She got her start onscreen with her parents
Ella’s film career kicked off with the 2009 Disney comedy “Old Dogs,” which also stars both of her parents — and that was, of course, no coincidence.
Her dad first pitched the idea of her appearing onscreen when she was just 5 years old, but as he explained during a visit to “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” in 2022, she told him she wasn’t ready yet. When she changed her tune two years later, he wasted no time securing her a role in a film he’d been offered. And when Preston wanted to make it a family affair, he made that happen, too.
“It was the best filming experience I’ve ever had, bar none,” Preston said in an interview while promoting the film. “It was so much fun, and it was just the greatest to be able to be in her first movie.”
Ella went on to star alongside her dad once more in 2019’s “The Poison Rose,” before moving on to her first leading role in the yet-to-be released “Alice in Wonderland” riff “Get Lost.”
She crossed over into music
John was also the driving force behind Ella’s musical career.
When the star, who’s recorded a number of celebrated albums over the course of his own career, learned that his daughter had written and recorded snippets of songs during the pandemic, he knew she had to do something with the material.
“He was like, ‘Oh, wow, you should really finish these. You should finish these songs, and then you could record demos of them or something,’” Ella recounted to People.
So, she released her first two singles: “Dizzy” in 2022 and “Little Bird” in 2024.
She honors her late mother and brother every year
Ella’s family has been rocked by tragedy more than once, but she continues to hold her lost loved ones close to her heart.
The first major loss came in 2009, when her big brother, Jett, who’d had a history of seizures throughout his life, suffered a fatal one at the age of 16 while staying at the family’s vacation home in the Bahamas.
Each year, she marks “Jetty’s” birthday by posting a photo from their childhood on social media along with a message of love for her late sibling.
In 2020, the family suffered another blow when Preston, at the age of 57, died following a battle with breast cancer.
Just as she posts in honor of Jett each year, Ella is devoted to sharing her love for her mother on every birthday and Mother’s Day that passes.
She gets the best advice from her father
The career encouragement Ella has received from her father over the years is a two-way street.
“He’s my biggest fan, and I’m his biggest fan, so there’s a lot of support going on,” she explained in a chat with Parade in 2023. “It’s amazing. I learn so much from him, all the time.”
She told the publication he always has the best advice, but he doesn’t want her to follow it blindly.
“So, whether I follow it or whether I make my own conclusion from it, he’s always encouraging me to think for myself,” she said.