What Do the ‘Stranger Things' Actors Do When They're Not in the Upside Down?

The young cast of Stranger Things lead very busy lives and careers outside of the Netflix show.

With Stranger Things coming to an end, Joe Keery, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown and their costars have already started lining up professional pivots.

Brown is balancing her career as one of Netflix's in-demand movie stars with raising her newborn daughter on her Georgia farm, while Sadie Sink and Gaten Matarazzo have established themselves as breakthrough stage actors on Broadway and beyond.

Meanwhile, Wolfhard and Keery have both developed passionate fanbases in the world of music through their work with The Aubreys and Post Animal, respectively.

Keep scrolling for more about what the cast of Stranger Things do away from the set.

Finn Wolfhard

Millie Bobby Brown partnered with Netflix on several successful movie projects, including the Enola Holmes series and Damsel.

The Eleven actress launched her Gen Z fashion line, Florence by Mills, in 2019, and has worked with brands such as Converse, Pandora and Vogue Eyewear on major campaigns.

In May 2024, Brown tied the knot with boyfriend Jake Bongiovi, after dating for three years. The couple adopted their first baby, a daughter, in August 2025.

"This summer, we welcomed our sweet baby girl through adoption," the couple announced in a joint Instagram post on August 21, 2025. "We are beyond excited to embark on this beautiful next chapter of parenthood in both peace and privacy."

They concluded, "And then there were 3. Love, Millie and Jake Bongiovi."

After officially changing her professional name to Millie Bonnie Bongiovi, the actress and her husband settled into their 16.7-acre farm in Georgia to spend quality time with their baby daughter.

The Stranger Things star opened up about farm life to Vanity Fair in February 2025, insisting that she was "not doing it for the aesthetic."

"I'm doing it because I love it," she insisted. "There are maybe some trad wives out there doing it because it seems wholesome, but it is not. If you're not picking up horse (obscenity) or washing a cow with your bare hands, then that life is not made for you. At all."

Gaten Matarazzo

Aside from his starring roles in the movies Concrete Cowboy and The Book of Clarence, Caleb McLaughlin carved out a niche as a voice actor on animated projects like Summer Camp Island and The Boys Presents: Diabolical.

McLaughlin - who plays Lucas Sinclair on Stranger Things - spoke to Rolling Loud in June 2025 about the differences between his live action and voice acting work.

"Every word, your tone, your question, statement, had to be represented [with live acting]. They had to be expressed," he explained. "Animation kind of helps that, you're seeing the visual."

McLaughlin has become a regular on the convention circuit after overcoming early instances of racism during fan encounters.

"My very first Comic-Con, some people didn't stand in my line because I was Black… Sometimes overseas you feel the racism, you feel the bigotry," he told fans at the Heroes Comic Con Belgium convention in 2023. "Sometimes it's hard to talk about and for people to understand, but when I was younger it definitely affected me a lot."

Natalia Dyer

Prior to landing the role of Jonathan Byers in Stranger Things, Charlie Heaton got his start in the London music scene with the bands Comanechi and Half Loon.

Heaton parlayed his Stranger Things success into a leading role in the Marvel Comics film adaptation of The New Mutants, playing Cannonball. He has since starred in the Cannes Film Festival hit The Souvenir Part II and joined the cast of HBO's financial drama series Industry.

The actor has dated his Stranger Things costar Natalia Dyer since 2016. Speaking to Wonderland magazine in November 2025, he said that sharing his life and work with Dyer has been "precious."

"It's been a gift to work with my best friend," he said. "To be able to have a shared experience with your partner about the anxiety when you don't get a job – I know what that feels like, she knows what that feels like."

Heaton continued, "You can be there to talk about it, or when you have a s*** day at work, or come away from a scene and you didn't think it worked. To be able to both understand each other on that level is great."

Noah Schnapp

Sadie Sink joined the Stranger Things cast in season 2 as Eleven's friend Max Mayfield. The Texas native has since starred in the Oscar-winning drama The Whale and has a mysterious role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's 2026 blockbuster Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Having made her Broadway debut at age 10 in the 2012 production of Annie, she later appeared in John Proctor Is the Villain. Sink will make her West End debut in 2026 opposite Noah Jupe in Romeo & Juliet at the historic Harold Pinter Theatre.

Taylor Swift handpicked Sink to depict an age-gap romance with Teen Wolf's Dylan O'Brien in the short film for 2021's "All Too Well (Taylor's Version)." The film has amassed more than 109 million views on YouTube alone.

During a 2025 interview with Teen Vogue, Sink explained why she prefers not to discuss her dating life in public.

"I think the more private I am, also, the more believable the roles can be," she said. "I don't want anyone to know anything about me in my personal life or know too much about who I am just as Sadie, because I think the louder that gets, the quieter the impact of your characters can be."

Joe Keery

Joe Keery's debut as Steve Harrington in Stranger Things came just a year after he joined the Chicago-based psychedelic rock band Post Animal in 2014. He served as drummer, guitarist and vocalist for the group prior to leaving Post Animal in 2018 - though he later rejoined the band in 2025.

He embarked on a solo career under the name Djo, releasing his debut solo album, Twenty Twenty, in 2019. In 2025, he headlined the Back on You World Tour, where Post Animal actually opened up for Djo.

Chatting to The Guardian about his 2025 album, The Crux, Keery said he was aware his music would face extra scrutiny because of his Stranger Things fame.

"You kind of can't really let it get you down, I guess, or affect what you're doing too much, to be honest with you," he said.

Keery datedIt Follows and Longlegs actress Maika Monroe from 2017 to 2023. He opened up about how their split impacted his work on the FX series Fargo in a 2024 interview with Variety.

"I had also gone through a big breakup, right as I was leaving Rome, so I was really isolated and focused on my work," he said. "My social life pretty much revolved around the show; my work life revolved around the show. We weren't really leaving due to COVID-19."

Keery added that he "started working out a bunch and changed my diet a little bit" as a way to turn the page on his past relationship.

"I've never really done that for a job. I didn't realize it at the time, but I think it kind of informed me physically … I had a very simple lifestyle, and I was cooking for myself," he explained.

Maya Hawke

Priah Ferguson had roles in Atlanta and Mercy Street before her casting as Lucas Sinclair's younger sister, Erica, in Stranger Things season 2.

She has lent her voice to Disney's animated show Hamster & Gretel and Netflix's My Dad the Bounty Hunter.

Ferguson told Teen Vogue in November 2025 that she hoped to venture beyond acting once Stranger Things concluded.

"Outside of the craft, I'm really into beauty and cosmetic marketing and science, and I hope to have my own skin care brand one day," she explained. "I was going to school for cosmetic science to learn the science behind perfume-making so I don't just slap my name onto something; I [want to] actually know the science behind it."

US Weekly

This story was originally published December 21, 2025 at 4:00 PM.