Suri Cruise, the 20-year-old daughter of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise, has legally changed her name to Suri Noelle and is making her acting debut in a student production at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Noelle is one of nine students from Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, appearing in Midsummer!, a modern adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream described as "bursting with queer transformative joy." The show runs for two weeks from Thursday.
Her mother, the actress Katie Holmes, best known for Dawson's Creek and Batman Begins, is expected to watch the performance. Her father, Tom Cruise, a leading member of the Church of Scientology, is not.
Legal name change confirmed
It was revealed this week that Suri is now legally Suri Noelle, having taken her mother's middle name as her surname. New York courts routinely file name changes "under seal," keeping them private, and it appears she made the change quietly while living in New York with Holmes, shortly after turning 18.
A source told Page Six that Holmes fully supported her daughter's decision. "Katie wasn't surprised by Suri's decision to legally drop 'Cruise' from her last name because that's just who Suri is," the source said. "This also wasn't something that happened overnight. It was a decision that evolved over time, and Katie respected Suri's process every step of the way."
She was already using the name Suri Noelle when she graduated from LaGuardia High School in June 2024. Electoral records from October 2024, during her freshman year at Carnegie Mellon, also show her registered to vote under that name, as residents must use their legal name to do so. Sources close to her said at the time that she wanted to "start fresh at college" and build her own identity separate from Cruise.
Following her father into acting
It had previously been suggested she was "leaning towards" studying fashion, but Noelle is in fact studying musical theatre. She played the lead role of Morticia in LaGuardia's production of The Addams Family: A New Musical during her senior year in 2023, drawing praise from an audience member who called her "amazing."
A source described her as an "excellent actress" who is serious about her craft. "She is a nice girl and goes by a different name to protect her privacy," the source said. "The thing is that she is studying her ass off and actually putting in the work to be a trained actor, not just a nepo baby like Apple Martin. She really wants to learn the craft and art of acting. Also she is insanely talented."
A childhood in the spotlight
Suri was born in April 2006 and first introduced to the world at five months old in a Vanity Fair photo shoot. In the accompanying interview, Cruise, who had previously adopted children Connor and Bella with his second wife Nicole Kidman, said: "I always said to myself that my children would be able to depend on me and I would always be there for them and love them. I'm not one of those people who believe you can spoil a child with too much love."
The family was then living on a 400-acre ranch in Telluride, Colorado. Suri was the centre of attention at the Cruise-Holmes wedding in Italy in November 2006 and was photographed constantly in her early years, almost always in her father's arms.
Divorce and a shrinking relationship
Everything changed when Holmes filed for divorce in 2012. Within five weeks, Cruise's lawyer Bert Fields had secured a settlement giving Holmes custody, with Cruise granted visitation rights and required to pay $400,000 a year toward Suri's living expenses until she turned 18.
Holmes moved to New York, enrolled the previously home-schooled Suri at the Avenues School, and took a break from acting, even working as a teaching assistant, or "reader," at her daughter's school.
In September 2012, Cruise sued two celebrity magazines that reported he had "abandoned" his daughter; the case was settled out of court. In a deposition, he admitted he had not seen Suri, then six, for 110 days over the previous summer, and had seen her for just ten days over a five-month period, six of which were during a trip to Disney World. During that stretch he flew from Pittsburgh to London for a Scientology event and spent time in Hvar, Croatia.
Cruise said he and Suri had kept in touch by phone. "I tell wonderful stories and they like hearing it. I've gotten pretty good at communicating," he said. "Things change. Certainly what doesn't change is the love I have for my daughter, the fact that I didn't abandon her emotionally, physically, or otherwise."
Scientology cited as the cause
Cruise is thought not to have seen Suri since she was six, and his publicists again declined to comment this week. A source close to the actor continues to deny that the two are estranged, but others point to Scientology, the religion founded by L. Ron Hubbard, as the likely cause.
Brendan Tighe, a former Scientologist who worked on Cruise's security detail, said: "So long as Suri sides with her mom, which she clearly does, there will be no contact with her dad. This is particularly sad considering how much of an over-the-top affectionate family they were in the early years."
Mike Rinder, once the third-highest-ranking official in Scientology and a longtime acquaintance of the Cruise family, agreed. "As Katie gained custody of Suri, Tom cannot communicate with her as she is connected to her mother. Any good Scientologist chooses Scientology over their personal wishes or even wellbeing," he said.
While Suri was raised in Scientology during her parents' marriage, Holmes returned to the Catholic faith of her own childhood after the split. Scientology is known for discouraging members from maintaining relationships with relatives outside the religion.
As Suri Noelle takes her first professional steps as an actress at the Edinburgh Fringe, it is her mother who is expected in the audience, not her father.
