Charlie Heaton

Charlie Heaton is an English actor and musician best known for playing Jonathan Byers on Netflix’s Stranger Things. Heaton was born in Leeds, England, and was raised by his mother and two sisters in Bridlington, a coastal town in East Yorkshire. He developed an interest in music as a child and began playing drums as a teenager. At 16, he moved to London to live with his father and pursue music.

Before acting, Heaton worked as a drummer and toured with the noise-rock band Comanechi for more than a year. He began acting professionally in 2015 with early appearances on British series including DCI Banks, Vera and Casualty. His breakout came in 2016 when he was cast as Jonathan Byers on Stranger Things, alongside Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard and Winona Ryder. He and the show’s ensemble won the 2017 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. Heaton’s film credits include Shut In (2016), As You Are (2016), Marrowbone (2017), The New Mutants (2020) and Billy Knight (2025).

Heaton shares a son, Archie (born in 2014), with his former Comanechi bandmate Akiko Matsuura. He later began dating his Stranger Things costar Natalia Dyer, with the pair publicly confirming their relationship in 2017.