Gaten Matarazzo seemingly came out of nowhere to wow Netflix subscribers as Dustin Henderson
in Stranger Things.
But there's more to Matarazzo than just D&D and Demogorgons.
While Matarazzo is still quite young, there's plenty you may not know about the young, curly-headed
celebrity.
Before he was warming hearts as Dustin, Matarazzo was belting out ballads on Broadway.
At the tender age of eight, he played Benji in the 2011 run of Priscilla, Queen of the
Desert, based on the 1994 film.
From the glitz and glam of Priscilla, Matarazzo went on to the role of Gavroche in the 2014
run of Les Misérables.
Matarazzo is never far from his Broadway roots, continuing to sing on various television shows
and regularly going to see stage performances.
He's also set to play Jack in an upcoming Hollywood Bowl production of Into the Woods,
Stephen Sondheim's subversive take on classic fairy tales.
Many actors who start out on stage end up leaving it behind for television and film,
but it seems that Matarazzo is content to continue performing on stage and screen.
"It's really cool to, like, have a job of something that I love."
The young actor cites his older sister, Sabrina Matarazzo, as part of his inspiration to pursue
a career in performance.
Sabrina started out in community theater, and has since had roles in a couple of short
films, as well as one episode of The Americans.
But she's not the only talented Matarazzo sibling.
In 2015, Matarazzo congratulated his younger brother, Carmen, on his first show, a community
theater production of Into the Woods Jr.
It seems that all the Matarazzo kids have a deep affinity for acting, and it's likely
we'll be seeing more of Sabrina and Carmen in the future.
In 2015, a year before Stranger Things made him a household name, Matarazzo had a one-off
role on NBC's crime drama The Blacklist.
The episode, titled "The Kenyon Family (No. 71)," features a polygamous cult leader harboring
some dangerous goods.
Matarazzo plays a kid named Finn, who's been brainwashed into carrying out a bombing attack.
Once Stranger Things ends, Matarazzo will have his pick of roles.
It will be interesting to see if he sticks with dramatic fare like The Blacklist or branches
out into different genres.
Even within the confines of Stranger Things, he's shown an aptitude for comedy, drama,
and horror.
Born in Little Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, Matarazzo was only a couple hours away from
the bright lights of Broadway.
Despite his rapid rise to fame and his ever-increasing paycheck from Netflix, currently at $250,000
per episode for Stranger Things season three, Matarazzo has not relocated to Hollywood.
His life off the Stranger Things set seems to be fairly typical of any American 16-year-old.
He goes to school, and in 2019, he even went to prom with his girlfriend, Lizzy Yu.
It must be daunting, as a young person, to have his entire life on display for millions
of people to see, but Matarazzo seems to be taking it in stride, living his life as normally
as he can, given the circumstances.
The curly-headed actor is the lead singer for a rock band called Work in Progress, a
seven-person ensemble which includes both of his siblings, along with a few friends.
"Half the band is me and my brother and my sister.
That's three of us right there.
And then the other three are, uh, they all went to our school."
The group has very diverse taste in music, covering songs from bands including Led Zeppelin
and The Black Keys.
Speaking with The Aquarian, Matarazzo has said that his two favorite bands to cover
are Pearl Jam and Green Day, as he's a big fan of both Eddie Vedder and Billie Joe Armstrong.
According to Matarazzo, his dad introduced him to Pearl Jam's music, and he's seen the
grunge band play multiple times.
Work in Progress is recording its own original songs now, with catchy titles like "Dream
Eater," which kind of sounds like something that might come crawling out of the Upside
Down.
As many dedicated fans know, Matarazzo was born with a genetic condition called cleidocranial
dysplasia, or CCD.
This condition affects the development of bones and teeth, and though Matarazzo seems
to have milder symptoms than many others with the disorder, he was born without collar bones
and is missing his front teeth.
He's undergone several surgeries to mitigate his symptoms...
"I've had two surgeries and I've had four extractions, and um...I have more teeth than
most people.
I have extra teeth."
...but his CCD does not seem to be preventing him from living a full and exciting life,
though it did prevent him from getting acting work early on.
To this end, Matarazzo has chosen to raise awareness of this rare disorder among his
fan base, and he works to raise funds to help those diagnosed who might not have access
to the full breadth of treatment.
He is working closely with the group CCD Smiles as a spokesperson and collaborates on Dustin-themed
merchandise to raise funds for those in need.
Matarazzo's Twitter and Instagram feeds are a constant string of causes he hopes to bring
to his fans' attention.
Most recently, he teamed up with Verizon to help raise funds for first responders through
the Gary Sinise Foundation.
Matarazzo also supports a nonprofit restaurant called Soul Kitchen, whose donated proceeds
go toward helping individuals struggling with food insecurity.
Perhaps having a genetic disorder has given him a certain amount of perspective about
struggling with uncontrollable circumstances, or perhaps it's just in his nature to pay
his good fortune forward.
Matarazzo appeared in a few music videos back in 2017.
The most well-known of these would probably be Katy Perry's "Swish Swish" featuring Nicki
Minaj.
In the video, Matarazzo plays Perry's teammate on a basketball team with a reputation for
being big-time losers.
Matarazzo's nickname in the video is "Tragic Johnson," and he's one among a lineup of lousy
ball players.
In Computer Games' "Lost Boys Life" video, Matarazzo plays the role of an adult who is,
to quote the lyrics, "living a lost boy's life."
In the video, Matarazzo wakes up, goes to his terrible job, argues with his boss, and
gets fired.
But when everything seems bleak, he picks up a guitar and starts leading a more personally
fulfilling life through music.
Matarazzo made headlines when his Netflix reality show, Prank Encounters, was announced.
The show, which Matarazzo is both hosting and producing, is set to air sometime in 2019.
The premise of the show is that people show up for their first day of work to find themselves
besieged with weird pranks.
Critics were concerned that vulnerable job seekers were being fooled into taking fake
jobs and wasting precious time when they could be seeking out real employment.
Tricking the desperate doesn't seem like Matarazzo's usual way of doing things, and both he and
Netflix worked to clear up the misunderstanding.
"I just want to let everybody know that those who participated were fully aware that it
was going to be a one-day gig going in...and everybody was compensated."
Matarazzo is set to star as Rami, a young camel crossing the desert in search of his
human friend, in the 2020 film Hump.
There's not a ton of information about this movie as of right now, but he'll be working
alongside Simon Pegg, who's playing the villain, and Ramy Youssef, who plays a human friend,
Omar.
Rob Gibbs, an animator on Fern Gully: The Last Rainforest, Toy Story 2, and Inside Out,
is directing.
Once upon a time, Matarazzo's lisp prevented him from getting any roles at all, and now
he'll be acting with only his voice as the star of an animated film.
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