Finn Wolfhard

• 1. Introduction

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  Finn Wolfhard landed the role of Mike Wheeler by sending in a video. He had spotted an open casting call and auditioned remotely. The part was on the Netflix series Stranger Things, which ran from 2016 to 2025 and made the young Canadian actor internationally known.

  He was born on the 23rd of December 2002. Today he is an actor, a musician and a film director.

  How did one open casting call lead to two separate stories that are both set in the 1980s? What did he make once he picked up a camera and a guitar of his own? And what does a performer do with fame that arrives in his teens?

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• 2. Early Steps

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  Vancouver, British Columbia, is where Finn Michael Wolfhard was born, into a family of French and German descent with Jewish heritage. He attended Catholic school. His father, Eric Wolfhard, researches Indigenous land claims in Canada. His older brother, Nick Wolfhard, is also an actor.

  In 2012 a music video for the song "Retro Oceans" by the Vancouver band Facts gave him his first acting role. Two years later, in 2014, he made his television debut as Zoran in the second season of the post-apocalyptic science fiction series The 100. In 2015 he appeared as Jordie Pinsky in Supernatural.

  Music videos kept finding him. Also in 2014 he appeared in a video for the band PUP's song "Guilt Trip", playing the young Stefan Babcock.

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• 3. Awards and Attention

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  In 2017 Wolfhard went head to head with his Stranger Things co-stars Noah Schnapp, Gaten Matarazzo and Caleb McLaughlin on Spike's Lip Sync Battle. The cast also won a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.

  The Teen Choice Awards, the MTV Movie & TV Awards and the People's Choice Awards all listed him in their categories. In 2018 one MTV category was Best Kiss, shared with his co-star Millie Bobby Brown.

  From 2017 to 2019, Variety placed him in its Hollywood Youth Impact Report. In 2018 and 2019, The Hollywood Reporter named him among the top 30 stars under the age of 18. Forbes then included him in its 30 Under 30 class of 2020, in the field of Hollywood and entertainment.

  In May 2019 he even made his modeling debut, in Saint Laurent's Fall/Winter '19 campaign.

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• 4. A Coincidence in the Eighties

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  Cary Fukunaga was attached as director and co-writer of the 2017 adaptation of Stephen King's It when Wolfhard was first cast as Richie Tozier. Fukunaga left the project over creative differences, and the part fell through. According to Wolfhard, that collapse freed him to pursue Stranger Things.

  When Andy Muschietti became attached to It, Wolfhard had to audition for Richie all over again. Both stories are set in the 1980s, and landing them both was a coincidence.

  It gave him his feature film debut in 2017. He returned as the young Richie in flashbacks for the sequel It Chapter Two in 2019.

  Jason Reitman directed Ghostbusters: Afterlife in 2021. Wolfhard played Trevor Spengler, the son of a single mother played by Carrie Coon. He played Trevor again in the sequel Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire in 2024.

  In 2025 he slipped back into the role of Richie for an uncredited cameo in the series It: Welcome to Derry, in an episode called "Winter Fire".

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• 5. Range Beyond Franchises

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  In the 2018 Ken Marino ensemble comedy Dog Days, Wolfhard played Tyler, an altruistic and thoughtful pizza delivery boy. In January 2020 he played Miles in The Turning, a supernatural horror adaptation of Henry James's novella The Turn of the Screw.

  John Crowley wanted an authentic Russian actor for Boris in The Goldfinch, his 2019 adaptation of Donna Tartt's novel. Wolfhard's near perfect Russian accent in his audition helped him win the part instead. He played Young Boris Pavlikovsky, a Ukrainian student and troublemaker.

  In January 2019 he lent his voice to Player, the chief accomplice and friend of the title character in the Netflix animated series Carmen Sandiego. He also voiced Pugsley Addams in an animated remake of The Addams Family. For Adult Swim he worked on Smiling Friends and on JJ Villard's Fairy Tales, where he voiced Boypunzel, a gender-swapped version of Rapunzel.

  In July 2020 it was announced that Wolfhard and his brother Nick would headline the voice cast of the sci-fi animated series NEW-GEN, playing twin brothers. In 2022 he joined Guillermo del Toro's stop-motion animated musical film Pinocchio. In November 2023 Scott Pilgrim Takes Off was released, with Wolfhard voicing a younger version of the title character. He was also cast alongside Willem Dafoe, Emily Watson and Helena Zengel in A24's fantasy epic The Legend of Ochi, directed by Isaiah Saxon.

  Jason Reitman's comedy miniseries Home Movie: The Princess Bride raised money for World Central Kitchen, and Wolfhard played Inigo Montoya in it. In September 2020 he also performed a live reading of the Princess Bride script, as the Grandson, for a Democratic Party of Wisconsin charity event.

  Jesse Eisenberg wrote the 2020 Audible Original When You Finish Saving the World, in which Wolfhard narrates Ziggy Katz. Ziggy is a 15-year-old boy recording audio sessions for a futuristic bot therapist. Eisenberg adapted it into a 2022 comedy-drama film, with Julianne Moore and Wolfhard playing mother and son. Wolfhard also performs two songs as Ziggy on its soundtrack.

  Rules for Werewolves, a 2020 short film directed by Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux, uses a screenplay by playwright and novelist Kirk Lynn, adapted from his debut novel. It is set to become a feature-length film with Wolfhard attached to star.

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• 6. Behind the Camera

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  In July 2017 Wolfhard co-directed his first music video with Josh Ovalle, for the Spendtime Palace song "Sonora".

  At the age of 17 he made his directorial debut with the comedy short film Night Shifts, in 2020. He released it on YouTube the following year.

  In November 2021 he announced that he was working on a feature-length film called Hell of a Summer. In 2023 he and his friend and frequent collaborator Billy Bryk released it. The pair co-directed it, co-wrote it and co-starred in it. It debuted at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, where it was named second runner-up for the People's Choice Award for Midnight Madness.

  In October 2025 it was reported that Wolfhard was developing a biopic about the band The Replacements. The film draws on the autobiography Trouble Boys: The True Story of the Replacements. He will co-write the screenplay with his father and produce the film.

  In November 2025 it was announced that he would star in Crash Land alongside Gabriel LaBelle. Dempsey Bryk is directing, and Bryk and Wolfhard are producing.

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• 7. Guitar First

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  Calpurnia, a rock band from Vancouver, had Wolfhard as its lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and songwriter until it dissolved in November 2019. Its album Scout came out on the 15th of June 2018 on Royal Mountains Record. In 2019 Wolfhard appeared with the band in Weezer's video for "Take On Me", playing the young Rivers Cuomo.

  A few weeks after Calpurnia ended, Wolfhard's new band, The Aubreys, was announced. It featured Malcolm Craig, the former Calpurnia drummer, and it was set to debut on the soundtrack of The Turning. The single "Loved One" arrived on the 10th of March 2020. The debut EP Soda & Pie followed on the 13th of March 2020, through AWAL. "Smoke Bomb" came on the 17th of August 2020.

  On the 12th of January 2021 The Aubreys released "No Offerings", a collaboration with Lunar Vacation. "Sand in My Bed" followed on the 14th of February. The single "Karaoke Alone" came out on the 10th of September 2021. The debut studio LP of the same name arrived on the 5th of November 2021.

  On the 6th of June 2025 Wolfhard released his debut solo studio album, Happy Birthday, via AWAL. After Stranger Things concluded with its fifth and final season, he told Deadline Hollywood that he would shift his focus to music.

  His second album, Fire from the Hip, was slated for release on the 10th of July 2026.

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• 8. Beyond the Screen

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  In May 2017 Wolfhard hosted "Strange 80s", a benefit concert raising funds for Sweet Relief, an organization that helps struggling musicians in need of medical care. He performed three tracks there with his former band Calpurnia. His work with Sweet Relief earned him an award at the 2017 Television Industry Advocacy Awards. He has also been involved in advocacy for autism and for Indigenous children. In an interview with Variety, he revealed that he donates monthly to help people affected by the Russo-Ukrainian war.

  In October 2017 Wolfhard parted ways with his agency, APA, and fired his agent Tyler Grasham. The break followed allegations that Grasham had sexually assaulted aspiring young male actors. Wolfhard himself had not been assaulted. In January 2018 he signed with Creative Artists Agency.

  His anxiety and panic attacks began in his mid-teens, amid the pressures of fame from Stranger Things. He sought therapy and has since embraced mental health awareness.

  As of 2025, Wolfhard says he is choosing to stay single to focus on his career, and he keeps his romantic life private. He describes himself as "pretty agnostic". He is also a fan of Pope Leo XIV, whom he calls "a cool liberal-looking guy who actually cares about people."

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