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Rise to Fame
He was already doing Broadway before anyone outside New Jersey theater circles knew his name, playing Gavroche in Les Misérables on the national tour and the Broadway run. Stranger Things showed up in 2016, and the showrunners cast him as Dustin Henderson and then wrote his actual medical condition, cleidocranial dysplasia, into the character. The rare bone disorder affects about one in a million people and is why he doesn't have permanent teeth, lacks collarbones, and looks younger than his age. He's summed it up himself: "pretty much every part I've booked is because of the condition."
In the Spotlight
Stranger Things ran five seasons through 2025, and now he's figuring out what comes after a defining role he's held since age 13. He told Variety in 2023 he had a "deep fear" of the show ending, worried specifically about losing job security and going "back to freelance." Between seasons, he kept the theater work going: Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway in 2022, then Sweeney Todd in 2023 alongside Josh Groban. The musical foundation predates the Netflix fame. Whether it sustains the next chapter is the open question.
Side Notes
His Broadway career started in 2011 in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, before he was 10. The kid who wore dentures to auditions grew up and turned his condition into a fundraising platform: he raises money for CCD Smiles, which covers oral surgery costs for patients with cleidocranial dysplasia. Work in Progress, a seven-piece New Jersey rock band with his siblings and friends, is the side project that rounds it all out. Acting, Broadway, and patient advocacy apparently weren't enough.