Louis Gabriel Basso III was born on December 11, 1994, in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, to Marcie and Louis J. Basso. He was homeschooled alongside his two sisters, actresses Alexandria and Annalise Basso, both actresses. The Basso family attended Grace Doctrine Church in St. Charles, Missouri. Initially, Louis aspired to become a professional football player before discovering his passion for acting.

Louis began his career as a child actor, While living in St. Louis in early 2007, he played minor roles in two feature films: Meet Bill, starring Aaron Eckhart, and Alice Upside Down, starring Alyson Stoner. His older sister Alexandria also appeared in Alice Upside Down. Shortly after, Louis moved with his mother and sisters to Los Angeles, where he quickly secured representation and landed a lead role in the Dailymotion Kids web series Ghost Town.

Louis made guest appearances in popular television series such as Nickelodeon’s iCarly and ABC’s The Middle. From 2010 to 2013, he played a regular role as Adam Jamison in the Showtime comedy series The Big C. In this role, he portrayed the son of Laura Linney’s lead character, earning recognition for his performance.

In 2009, Louis starred as Hal Mitchell in the independent film Alabama Moon, alongside John Goodman and Clint Howard. The film, directed by Tim McCanlies, was based on Watt Key’s best-selling novel. His major breakthrough came with his role in J.J. Abrams’ science fiction adventure film Super 8 (2011), followed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ comedy-drama The Kings of Summer 2013, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

Louis continued to build his filmography with roles in notable projects like, Barely Lethal (2015): An action comedy starring Hailee Steinfeld and Dove Cameron.

Ithaca (2015): Meg Ryan’s directorial debut, in which he appeared alongside Tom Hanks, The Whole Truth (2016): A courtroom drama directed by Courtney Hunt, featuring Keanu Reeves and Renée Zellweger, Hillbilly Elegy (2020): A Netflix adaptation of J.D. Vance’s memoir, in which Basso starred as the titular character.

In September 2021, Loui joined the cast of Netflix’s action-thriller film Trigger Warning, directed by Mouly Surya. Later that year, he was announced as the lead in the Netflix political conspiracy thriller series The Night Agent, created by Shawn Ryan. The series is based on the 2019 New York Times bestselling novel of the same name by Matthew Quirk and debuted in 2023 to positive reviews.

In 2022, Louis joined the cast of Renny Harlin’s The Strangers Trilogy, further cementing his position as a versatile actor in both television and film.