More than nine years after its 2016 debut, Stranger Things is preparing to return for its fifth and final season on Netflix.
The show’s fourth season, which had its premiere in 2022 after a three-year break, became one of Netflix’s biggest hits, racking up more than 286 million hours viewed in its opening weekend, surpassing Bridgerton season two’s 193 million.
The sci-fi series has not only redefined nostalgia-driven storytelling, but also opened its cast to global fame. As the show draws to a close, we look at what its young stars have been up to beyond Stranger Things.
Millie Bobby Brown
Brown was just 12 when she was cast for the show, playing the mysterious Eleven, in a role that she’s often called “life-changing”.
“At the premiere, everybody was like: 'The show is really good'. And I was like: 'I don't know what you're talking about, this is just a little show in Atlanta, Georgia.' And then three days later my whole life changed,” she told W Magazine in 2017.
Since Stranger Things was broadcast in 2016, Brown, 21, has become one of Netflix’s biggest stars. She’s produced and starred in Enola Holmes (2020), Enola Holmes 2 (2022) and the fantasy adventure Damsel (2024). She’s set to return for Enola Holmes 3, currently in development.
Beyond acting, Brown published her debut novel Nineteen Steps in 2023 and continues to expand her cosmetics and fashion line, Florence by Mills. She married Jake Bongiovi, son of musician Jon Bon Jovi, in 2024, and the couple have adopted a baby girl.
Finn Wolfhard
The Canadian actor plays Mike Wheeler, the leader of The Party, originally a close-knit group of friends including Will Byers, Lucas Sinclair and Dustin Henderson. It has since gone on to include Eleven and Max Mayfield.
Wolfhard, 22, has described in the past how he almost gave up on acting before landing the gig and that no one knew just how big the show would go on to be.
“We just thought we were filming this secret thing that no one knew about,” he said in an interview with The Guardian in 2020. “Which we were. No one knew what we were doing. Netflix were kind of hands-off. We thought maybe it would become a cult classic, and we’ll come back to it in 30 years and be really proud of doing it. And then it just blew up. Overnight.”
Since then, Wolfhard has starred in The Turning (2020), Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021), and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024). He's also gone behind the camera, making his directorial debut with the comedic short film Night Shifts (2020) and later co-directing the horror-comedy feature Hell of a Summer (2023).
In addition to acting and filmmaking, Wolfhard released his debut solo album Happy Birthday in June, marking a new chapter in his growing music career.
Noah Schnapp
Playing Will Byers, who goes missing in the first season, Schnapp, 21, has had a bigger role in the series as it has gone on. Like his castmates, he wasn’t sure whether there would be more than one season.
“When they were casting me, they told me that even though I’m not around a lot for season one, I’d be a major part of a second season – if they got to do it. So, I felt good knowing I had something to look forward to. But, definitely throughout season one, it sucked because I never got to go to any of the press or anything,” Schnapp told The Hollywood Reporter in February 2020.
“At first, I was like: ‘I shouldn’t even worry about this. There’s not going to be a season two’. Then all of a sudden, everything happened so quickly. My life changed in a matter of days. I’ve never been more grateful for anything.”
Since his role in Stranger Things, Schnapp has launched a sustainability-focused snacking company called To Be Honest and appeared in the mystery thriller The Tutor (2023). That same year, he was embroiled in controversy after a video circulated on social media showing his pro-Zionism support for Israel in the midst of the Israel-Gaza War.
Gaten Matarazzo
Although Matarazzo, 23, started his career on Broadway with parts in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Les Miserables, the role of Dustin Henderson in Stranger Things marks his big break.
“I love playing this part so much. It's the best thing I've ever gotten to do with my life. And to do it for so long, with such an amazing group of people is a blessing,” Matarazzo told ETimes in May 2022.
“It’s the greatest pleasure and I'm always excited because they always take such care with their characters. Every season they want to give every one a reason to move forward and to be a part of the show.”
Since then, Matarazzo has hosted the Netflix show Prank Encounters (2019-2021), while also doing work on Broadway, joining the final cast of the musical Dear Evan Hansen and taking on a role in Sweeney Todd alongside Josh Groban (2023). Earlier this year, he voiced Lucky the pig in the animated film Animal Farm, adapted from the 1945 George Orwell novel of the same name.
Caleb McLaughlin
McLaughlin plays Lucas Sinclair, another member of The Party. Although he’s been acting since he was a child, with roles such as Young Simba on Broadway, his part in Stranger Things is regarded as his breakthrough.
Unlike his castmates, McLaughlin says he always believed the Netflix Original had the potential to be something special.
“I always knew Stranger Things was going to be great. I knew that it would move the needle and a lot of people would love it,” he told Teen Vogue in March 2022.
Since his breakout role, McLaughlin, 23, has appeared in Concrete Cowboy (2020), Shooting Stars (2023), and The Deliverance (2024). He’ll next be seen in the 2026 animated sports comedy film Goat, where he stars in the title role.
Sadie Sink
Joining the cast in the second season, Sink plays Max Mayfield, who moves to Hawkins, Indiana, with her family, including her older stepbrother Billy.
“When the show was announced, I was 14 and all the attention kind of scared me off,” she told Glamour in May 2022. “Things around me started changing, but I never changed. I’d be flying to LA for the Golden Globes one day and then be right back at home with my mom telling me to take the trash out the next.”
Although Sink, 23, has been acting since 2011, she rose to wider fame after starring as the female lead in Taylor Swift’s All Too Well music video and as Ziggy Berman in the Fear Street film trilogy. She went on to earn critical acclaim for her performance in The Whale (2022) alongside Brendan Fraser, and most recently appeared in the musical drama O’Dessa (2025).
This year, Sink returned to Broadway in John Proctor Is the Villain, continuing to balance major film roles with her growing stage career.
Natalia Dyer
Dyer’s first screen role was as Clarissa Granger in 2009’s Hannah Montana: The Movie but these days she is known for playing Nancy Wheeler, Mike’s older sister, on Stranger Things. After the first season, she described to Teen Vogue in 2016 how her life had changed.
“I worry about the internet sometimes and all of that attention. You never get used to it. It was very much an overnight kind of thing,” she said. “One day, you're walking down the street and you're just you. And then the next day, after Stranger Things comes out, it was like, ‘Oh, you're Nancy.’ I don't know if you ever get used to that really, being recognised, being known by strangers, but it's cool.”
Following her success on Stranger Things, Dyer, 30, has appeared in Velvet Buzzsaw (2019), Yes, God, Yes (2019), and the horror-thriller All Fun and Games (2023). She continues to choose smaller, character-driven projects and remains one of Stranger Things' most private cast members.
Joe Keery
Keery, who plays bad boy-turned-hero Steve Harrington, originally auditioned for the role of Jonathan Byers.
“I didn’t hear anything for three months,” Keery, 33, told Boston.com in 2019. “And then I heard they wanted me to tape for this other character, Steve Harrington. I remember being like: ‘Oh, this guy? This guy’s a total jerk.”
Beyond the series, Keery has starred in Spree (2020) and Free Guy (2021), and he’s set to appear in the sci-fi thriller Cold Storage (2026) opposite Liam Neeson. He also continues to release music under his stage name Djo, with his third studio album, The Crux, which was released in April, accompanied by a successful world tour.
Charlie Heaton
The British actor plays Jonathan Byers, Will’s older brother and Nancy’s on-again, off-again boyfriend.
“I don’t want to say things happened easy. I wasn’t totally oblivious to what was going on. I had done acting at school, and it felt like something that came naturally to me,” he told GQ in 2020. “I had this turbulent, crazy year, and then the show came out in 2016 and it was like this overnight.”
Since joining Stranger Things, Heaton, 31, has appeared in The New Mutants (2020), No Future (2021) and As They Made Us (2022). He also starred opposite Al Pacino in the drama Billy Knight (2024), playing a young film student navigating ambition and loss.
Known for preferring low-key, independent projects, Heaton continues to work steadily in film while maintaining a long-term relationship with his Stranger Things co-star Natalia Dyer.
Maya Hawke
Hawke joined Stranger Things in its third season as Robin Buckley, Steve's witty and quick-thinking co-worker at Scoops Ahoy.
“I didn’t decide to be in Stranger Things because it was a big deal, I decided to be in Stranger Things because I love Stranger Things and the Duffer brothers,” she told Glamour in 2019. “It wasn’t a vehicle to stardom. That part of it was never interesting to me – if anything, it was overwhelming, scary and a deterrent.”
The daughter of actors Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, she has since carved out her own career across film, music and fashion. Since joining the show, Hawke, 27, has appeared in Do Revenge (2022), Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City (2023) and the biographical drama Wildcat (2023) in which she portrayed writer Flannery O’Connor.
She also voiced the character of Anxiety in 2024's Inside Out 2. The same year, she released her third studio album, Chaos Angel, which she has been performing on tour throughout 2025. She is next set to appear in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, due for release next year.
