Gaten Matarazzo Biography

Gaten Matarazzo began his career in the acting industry with Broadway performances at a young age. In 2011, he portrayed the character of Benjamin in the Broadway musical ‘Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’ at the Palace Theatre. In 2014, he played the character ‘Gavroche / Petit Gervais’ in the Broadway musical ‘Les Misérables’ which was staged at Imperial Theatre. The following year he was cast in an episode of the crime thriller television series ‘The Finn’. In 2016, he joined the cast of the science fiction-horror web series ‘Stranger Things’ as Dustin Henderson. His performance in the show earned him the ‘Screen Actors Guild Award’ and ‘Shorty Award.’ He is all set to reprise his role as Dustin Henderson in the upcoming fifth season of the series. Gaten has also appeared in television series and shows such as ‘Ridiculousness’ (2017), ‘Lip Sync Battle’ (2017), ‘Drop the Mic’ (2018), ‘Prank Encounters’ (2019-2021), ‘Nickelodeon's Unfiltered’ (2021), and ‘Waffles and Mochi’ (2021).

Gaten Matarazzo made his silver screen debut in the 2019 computer-animated action comedy film ‘The Angry Birds Movie 2’ where he voiced ‘Bubba.’ The film opened to a positive reception and grossed over $152.8 million at the box office. In 2022, he starred as ‘Michael Dipnicky’ in the Oran Zegman-directed coming-of-age comedy film ‘Honor Society.’ The film garnered praise from critics, earning an 85% approval score on Rotten Tomatoes. That same year, he also voiced ‘Boris the Dragon’ in the 2D-animated fantasy adventure film ‘My Father's Dragon’ directed by Nora Twomey. The film was released on Netflix and received a positive response from critics.

Gaten Matarazzo has revealed on several occasions that he is afflicted with a rare genetic disorder known as ‘Cleidocranial dysplasia’. The condition affects the overall facial, skull, and teeth development. Gaten was born without collar bones and still has his baby teeth, which causes him to speak with a lisp. While generally this disease is passed through genes, his case is considered a non-genetic and mild one. He believes that sharing his knowledge and experience about the condition will help build awareness and confidence among persons affected by this condition. In his hit project ‘Stranger Things,’ his character was affected by the same health condition.

Gaten Matarazzo was born on September 8, 2002, in New Jersey, USA to Heather Matarazzo and Gaten Matarazzo Sr. He has two siblings, Carmen Matarazzo, and Sabrina Matarazzo. His siblings have acted in television commercials as well. His mother, Heather, has been supportive of the artistic inclination of all her children and makes an effort to encourage them to pursue performing arts. She calls herself ‘Broadway stage mom’ on Twitter and has been instrumental in shaping Gaten’s career in acting. During his initial school days, Gaten used to travel regularly between New Jersey and New York City for his Broadway performances. Gaten Matarazzo has mentioned that he was inspired to enter into musical theatre by his sister Sabrina, who is a singer and actress.

In 2018, Gaten Matarazzo started dating Instagram Lizzy Yu. He has a pet dog.