Stranger Things star Noah Schnapp comes out as gay

Noah Schnapp, the American actor best known for his role as Will Byers in Stranger Things, has come out as gay.

The 18-year-old rapidly rose to fame after appearing in the hit Netflix series in 2016, and has starred in several movies including Waiting for Anya and Hubie Halloween. He’s also a very prominent user of TikTok, and previously blessed us all with the legendary “I literally just bought Ratatouille for nothing” audio.

Take a look at some behind the scenes action from Stranger Things’ fourth season below (beware of spoilers).

Yesterday (5 January) the actor took to TikTok to come out as gay. In the video description, he wrote “I guess I’m more similar to Will than I thought”, in reference to the fact that the iconic Stranger Things character is also canonically gay.

Fans have been flooding the star’s comments with support: “I’m so proud of you,” wrote one. “So proud of you! Welcome to the club!” said another. “We love you,” another commented.

Although this is the first time that the actor has come out publicly, he addressed Will Byers’ identity in an interview last year, and confirmed that the character has feelings for his best friend, Mike Wheeler (played by Finn Wolfhard).

“I mean, it’s pretty clear this season that Will has feelings for Mike,” Schnapp said at the time. “They’ve been intentionally pulling that out over the past few seasons. Even in season one, they hinted at that and slowly, slowly grew that storyline. I think for season four, it was just me playing this character who loves his best friend but struggles with knowing if he’ll be accepted or not, and feeling like a mistake and like he doesn’t belong.

“Will has always felt like that. All his friends, they all have girlfriends and they all fit into their different clubs. Will has never really found anywhere to fit in. I think that’s why so many people come up to me and tell me that they love Will and they resonate with him so much, because it’s such a real character.”