Caleb McLaughlin

**Caleb Reginald McLaughlin** (born October 13, 2001) is an American actor. He gained recognition for playing Lucas Sinclair in the Netflix series *Stranger Things*, for which he has won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. He has previously performed on the Broadway stage as Young Simba in the musical *The Lion King*. McLaughlin made his feature film debut in 2020 starring in *Concrete Cowboy*.

His acting career was launched in 2012 when the short film *Noah Dreams of Origami Fortunes* was released. He starred in this film as the main character Noah.

He also appeared in the television mini-series *New Edition: The Movie* as Ricky Bell, which was released in 2017.

## Biography

#### Early Life

McLaughlin grew up in Carmel, New York. He attended Kent Primary School and later attended George Fischer Middle School for one year. He studied dance for a year at Happy Feet Dance School in Carmel, New York and then at The Harlem School of the Arts under Aubrey Lynch, former *The Lion King* producer.

## Career

Caleb began his career when he appeared in an opera called *Lost in the Stars* in Cooperstown, New York at the Glimmerglass Opera House. He trained in ballet, tap, and jazz.

His first appeared in the short film *Noah Dreams of Origami Fortunes* in 2012. The same year, he was cast as Young Simba in the Broadway musical *The Lion King*. This play was staged at the Minskoff Theatre from 2012 to 2014.

During this time, McLaughlin also appeared in an episode each of *Law & Order: Special Victims Unit*, *Unforgettable* and *Forever*. After this, he was featured in an episode of *What Would You Do?*.

In 2015, he was cast as Lucas Sinclair in the Netflix series *Stranger Things*. That year, he also had small roles in the TV programs *Shades of Blue* and *Blue Bloods*. In 2017, McLaughlin played Ricky Bell in the miniseries *The New Edition Story*. Also in 2017, he was in two music videos.

He voiced young Gary in an episode of another Netflix TV series *Final Space* and voiced Ghost in an episode of Cartoon Network TV series *Summer Camp Island*.

In 2019, he played Darius in a Netflix sports drama *High Flying Bird*.

Caleb graduated high school in 2019. He has plans to continue his education, although not in an on-campus classroom. He went to college in fall 2019 but he was doing it online because he was filming *Stranger Things* and other projects.

In 2021, Netflix released *Concrete Cowboys* which starred Caleb and Idris Elba.

## Personal Life

He has been home-schooled since the fifth grade. In 2019, he graduated from high school and began taking online college courses.

## **Influences**

His acting influences are Ludacris, Emma Stone, Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Kevin Hart, Tiffany Haddish, Lupita Nyong'o, Jamie Foxx, Will Smith, Tom Hanks, Mahershala Ali, Chris Rock, Maya Rudolph and Cameron Boyce.

His music influences are Drake, Jaden Smith, SZA, Childish Gambino, the Migos, Kendrick Lamar, Frank Ocean, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Mary J. Blige, Prince, H.E.R., Michael Jackson, Winnie Harlow, Gary Clark Jr. and Ludacris.

Beside of acting, singing and dancing, he loves basketball and his basketball role models are Stephen Curry, Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan.

His favorite movies are *Black Panther* (2018), *Pretty in Pink* (1986), *Spider Man* movies, *Stand by Me* (1986), *E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial* (1982) and *The Matrix* (1999).

His favorite TV shows beside *Stranger Things* are *Black Mirror* (2011-2019) and *Black Lightning* (2018- ).

## **Filmography**

### Film

 2019
 2020
 2023
 2024
 TBA

### Music Videos

 Sia
 2021
 2022

## External Links

* Instagram
* Twitter
* Facebook

## Gallery

Caleb McLaughlin Stranger Things 3 Premiere Netflix
## Trivia

* He played Young Simba in *The Lion King* on Broadway in 2012.
* He studied dance at the Harlem School of the Arts in New York City, New York.
* He first met *Stranger Things* co-stars Gaten Matarazzo and Sadie Sink at a playground when they were on Broadway.
* He is left handed.
* When the Duffer Brothers called Caleb to tell him he got the part of Lucas, they actually pretended like he didn't get to be Lucas, just to mess with him.
* He is a germaphobe.
* His first kiss was with Sadie Sink during the Snow Ball scene in Season 2.
* He believes Billy Hargrove is a worse person than Jason Carver; Caleb argued that Jason was obnoxious and arrogant but wasn’t racist and genuinely tried to show Lucas the ropes. In contrast, Caleb alongside Dacre Montgomery have said that Billy hated Lucas for his race.

## References

1. ↑ "http://www.famousbirthdays.com/people/caleb-mclaughlin.html"*Famous Birthdays*
2. ↑ Caleb McLaughlin Ranks Stranger Things' Cast, Scenes & Sneakers | Teen Vogue