HEATON
Charles

• 1. Career

Charles Ross Heaton is an English actor and musician. He is best known for his role as Jonathan Byers in the science fiction series Stranger Things (2016–2025).

He has also starred in films such as As You Are (2016), Marrowbone (2017), The New Mutants (2020), No Future (2021), and The Souvenir Part II (2021). Prior to his acting career, he was the drummer in a number of rock bands.

Career

In 2010, at the age of 16, Heaton moved to London. He played the drums in a number of bands before joining the noise rock band Comanechi. During his tenure as their drummer, the band supported The Gossip, released an album in 2013, and toured for 18 months. Heaton then joined psychedelic rock band Half Loon.

With no formal acting training, Heaton first considered an acting career while working as an extra and taking on other commercial work to supplement his income as a musician. He also worked as a bartender during this time. In 2015, he had guest roles on a string of British television dramas: he first appeared in the ITV crime drama series DCI Banks and Vera, then guest-starred in BBC One's medical drama series Casualty. That same year, he was cast in his breakthrough role as Jonathan Byers in the Netflix science fiction series Stranger Things (2016–2025). In his first feature film role, he appeared in the thriller film Shut In (2016), which was filmed just prior to Heaton being cast in Stranger Things but was not released until after the show premiered. He also filmed the coming-of-age film As You Are, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2016.

In 2017, Heaton had a main role in the psychological horror film Marrowbone. In August 2018, the BBC announced that he would be playing Joseph Merrick, commonly known as the Elephant Man, in a new two-part drama. The casting drew criticism from a disability charity group, who said that not using a disabled actor was a missed opportunity, though the series was ultimately cancelled for other reasons. Heaton co-starred as Samuel "Sam" Guthrie / Cannonball in the superhero film The New Mutants (2020), which was poorly received critically and at the box office. He starred in the independent film No Future (2021) and had a supporting role in the film The Souvenir Part II (2021). In 2024, punk rock band Luxury Apartments released their self-titled album, featuring Heaton drumming on the song "Room Next Door". In his first role post-Stranger Things, he starred in the drama film Billy Knight (2025).