How old was Gaten Matarazzo when he joined Stranger Things? Actor reveals a 40-year-old mom had a crush on him at 13

Stranger Things fame Gaten Matarazzo appeared on the Inside of You podcast on May 28, 2024. He recalled an incident when a woman shared that she liked him since he was 13 years old. Matarazzo shared the story:

“I did one very recently — and this is not very funny, but the reactions around it were quite funny — where this woman in her 40s said straight up, I’ve had a crush on you since you were 13, And I was like, That’s upsetting. I’m sure she just meant, Aw, this kid’s cute."

He continued that her daughter, who was also Gaten Matarazzo’s age, accompanied the woman. He recalled:

“She was like, ‘I’m aware of the age difference.’ And then I was like, ‘Alright.’ And her daughter was with her, and her daughter goes, ‘Mom, what the f–k?’ I swear to God.”

Netflix stated that Gaten Matarazzo was signed for Stranger Things when he was just 12 years old.

Gaten Matarazzo, born in 2002, started his career as a Broadway actor, as he did many shows like Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and Les Misérables.

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Gaten Matarazzo played the role of Dustin Henderson in Stranger Things

While Gaten Matarazzo always had a passion for acting since childhood, he debuted in the show, Stranger Things when he was just 12 years old. While he signed up for the role of Dustin Henderson in the show, he made his acting debut in an episode of The Blacklist in 2015.

He spoke about his choice of work, as he said:

“I want to do things where I look and I say, ‘No one's ever going to make anything like this again. If I say no, I have to be okay with saying no to something that I'm I'm never going to be able to do what this is telling me to do. I read a lot of scripts where I'm like ‘I do this on Stranger Things.’ I don't want to go to a different production and do the same thing I've been doing.”

As Gaten Matarazzo rose to success after Stranger Things, he was then signed to host Prank Encounters in 2019 and then appeared in Into the Woods. He also lent his voice to Bubba's character in The Angry Birds Movie 2. Thereafter, he also joined the cast of Dear Evan Hansen and starred in the Honor Society.

However, the actor is best known for his work in Stranger Things, which is a science fiction horror drama that started airing on Netflix in 2016. The show revolves around the residents of Hawkins, a fictional small town. It tells the tale of the people as Hawkins National Laboratory performs various paranormal and supernatural experiments.

Apart from Gaten, the show also stars Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, and Caleb McLaughlin. The show has 4 seasons so far and has 34 episodes.

As Gaten talked about his encounter with the 40-year-old woman during the podcast, he then spoke about working with his "childhood hero," Josh Groban. As Gaten Matarazzo appeared in the Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, he stated he has been a fan of him since he was very young.

He concluded by sharing that he worked with Josh for 7 months, and the two became "good friends" by the end of the project. Gaten will take on a voicing acting role as Sig in The Lego Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy and in Ghostbusters: Ecto Force.