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Rise to Fame
He was drumming for Comanechi, a noise-rock act out of London, when his sister told him to try acting. No formal training. A few bit parts in British crime dramas like DCI Banks and Vera. Then a Netflix casting call handed him Jonathan Byers in Stranger Things. He was in Spain filming Marrowbone when the show went live in July 2016, and within days, he's said, a stranger recognized him on the street. That's how fast the Duffer Brothers changed his career arc.
In the Spotlight
With Stranger Things done after its final episodes aired in late 2025, Heaton is now building the post-Netflix chapter deliberately. He landed a Netflix limited series set in Newfoundland with Josh Hartnett, a romantic comedy with Mia Wasikowska, and a supporting turn in Industry on HBO. The New Mutants in 2020 was a critical and commercial failure, and he didn't revisit the MCU-adjacent path. The choices trending smaller and quieter is either genuine taste or very smart positioning.
Side Notes
The acting pivot wasn't just a career move. He had a son, Archie, at 20 with his Comanechi bandmate Akiko Matsuura, who was 14 years his senior, and drumming in a noise-rock band wasn't going to cover the bills. In October 2017, he got detained at LAX for cocaine possession and was sent back to England. No charges, but the timing, one year into Stranger Things, could have been worse. He's been with Natalia Dyer, who plays his character's girlfriend in the show, since 2016, which closes a certain kind of loop.