Shia LaBeouf facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Shia LaBeouf
LaBeouf at the 2022 Venice Film Festival
Born	Shia Saide LaBeouf (1986-06-11) June 11, 1986 (age 38) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor filmmaker performance artist
Years active	1996–present
Partner(s)	Mia Goth (2012–2018, 2020–present)
Children	1

Shia Saide LaBeouf (ⁱ/ˈʃaɪ.ə ləˈbʌf/ shy-Ə-_-LƏ-buf; born June 11, 1986) is an American actor and filmmaker. He played Louis Stevens in the Disney Channel series Even Stevens, a role for which he received Young Artist Award nominations in 2001 and 2002 and won a Daytime Emmy Award in 2003. He made his film debut in The Christmas Path (1998). In 2004, he made his directorial debut with the short film Let's Love Hate and later directed a short film titled Maniac (2011), starring American rappers Cage and Kid Cudi.

In 2007, LaBeouf starred in the commercially successful films Disturbia and Surf's Up. From 2007 to 2011, LaBeouf starred in the film Transformers and its sequels Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Transformers: Dark of the Moon, playing protagonist Sam Witwicky. The three films were commercially successful. In 2008, he played Henry "Mutt Williams" Jones III in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

His other credits include the films Holes (2003), Constantine (2005), Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010), Lawless (2012), The Company You Keep (2012), Charlie Countryman (2013), Fury (2014), American Honey (2016), Borg vs McEnroe (2017), Honey Boy (2019), The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019), Pieces of a Woman (2020), and Padre Pio (2022).

Since 2014, LaBeouf has pursued a variety of public performance art projects with LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner.

Early life

LaBeouf was born on June 11, 1986, in Los Angeles, California. He is the only child of Shayna Saide and Jeffrey LaBeouf. His mother was a visual artist, jewelry designer, and former dancer, while his father is a Vietnam War veteran and former professional clown. His mother died of heart failure in August 2022. LaBeouf's mother was Jewish, and his father, who is of Cajun French descent, is Christian. He has stated that he was raised around "both sides"; he had a Bar Mitzvah ceremony, and was also baptized. One of the camps he attended was Christian. In Hebrew, his first name Shia translates as 'gift of God'. He converted to Catholicism in 2022.

LaBeouf has described his parents as "hippies", his father as "tough as nails and a different breed of man", and his upbringing as similar to a "hippy lifestyle", stating that his parents were "pretty weird people, but they loved me and I loved them." His parents eventually divorced, mainly owing to financial problems, and LaBeouf had what he has described as a "good childhood", growing up poor in Echo Park with his mother, who worked selling fabrics and brooches. LaBeouf's uncle was going to adopt him at one stage because his parents could not afford to have him anymore and "they had too much pride to go on welfare or food stamps." As a way of dealing with his parents' divorce, he would perform for his family, mimicking his father. ....." .....

Labeouf then lived with his father from the age of 12 whilst he was filming Even Stevens, with his father serving as his on-set guardian. During this time, he accompanied his father to meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous. LaBeouf remains close to and financially supports both of his parents.

He attended 32nd Street Visual and Performing Arts Magnet in Los Angeles (LAUSD) and Alexander Hamilton High School, although he received most of his education from tutors. In an interview, LaBeouf said that, looking back on his childhood, he feels grateful and considers some of those memories as scars.

LaBeouf completed the 2010 Los Angeles Marathon on March 21, 2010, with a time of 4 hours, 35 minutes and 31 seconds.

Career

1996–2006: Career beginnings and Even Stevens

Prior to acting, LaBeouf practiced comedy around his neighborhood as an "escape" from a hostile environment. At age 10, he began performing stand-up at The Improv, describing his appeal as having "disgustingly dirty" material and a "50-year-old mouth on the 10-year-old kid." He subsequently found an agent through the Yellow Pages and was taken on after pretending to be his own manager. LaBeouf has said that he initially became an actor because his family was broke, not because he wanted to pursue an acting career, having originally gotten the idea from a child actor he met who had things he wanted.

In the early 2000s, LaBeouf became known among young audiences after playing Louis Stevens on the Disney Channel weekly program Even Stevens, a role that later earned him a Daytime Emmy Award. He has said that "[he] grew up on that show" and being cast was the "best thing" that happened to him. In the next several years, he appeared in the film Holes (2003), which received praise. In 2005, he co-starred in Constantine, playing the role of Chas Kramer, with Keanu Reeves in the starring role. The same year he provided the voice of Asbel in the Disney-produced English dub of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. LaBeouf made his directorial debut with the short film Let's Love Hate with Lorenzo Eduardo. He has played real-life people, including golfer Francis Ouimet and the younger version of Dito Montiel in A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006).

2007–2011: Breakthrough and big-budget films

LaBeouf with co-star Megan Fox at the Transformers press conference in Paris in June 2009

..... He received positive reviews for the role, with The Buffalo News writing that he "is able to simultaneously pull off [the character's] anger, remorse and intelligence". He hosted Saturday Night Live on April 14, 2007, and returned the following season to host the episode that aired on May 10, 2008.

LaBeouf starred in the 2007 film Transformers as Sam Witwicky opposite Megan Fox. His character is a human who becomes involved in the conflict between Autobots and Decepticons. The film received mixed reviews from critics, with LaBeouf's performance receiving similarly average reviews. The film became LaBeouf's highest-grossing film at the time.

In Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), LaBeouf portrayed Indiana Jones' greaser son, Mutt Williams. Stephanie Zachaek of Salon deemed his performance "appealing enough" and wrote that he "sensibly keeps his performance as low-key as possible". LaBeouf told the Los Angeles Times that he felt he as an actor "dropped the ball" on Jones' legacy, and "there was a reason" the film was not universally accepted. His next film was Eagle Eye, released on September 26.

In February, LaBeouf made his music video directorial debut, directing the video for "I Never Knew You", a single by American rapper Cage, from his third album Depart from Me (2009). It was shot in Los Angeles and features several cameo appearances from Cage's Definitive Jux label-mates. Through Cage, LaBeouf met Kid Cudi. All three of them later worked on a short film titled Maniac (2011), which was inspired by the song of the same name from Cudi's second album Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager (2010). .....

He appeared in the Oliver Stone-directed film Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010), the sequel to Wall Street (1987). In this, LaBeouf played an ambitious Wall Street trader. The Hollywood Reporter named LaBeouf as one of the young male actors who are "pushing – or being pushed" into taking over Hollywood as the new "A-List".

LaBeouf reprised the role of Sam Witwicky in the 2009 sequel to Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Filming began in May 2008 and ended in late 2008. Due to LaBeouf's injury from his car accident, director Michael Bay and screenwriter Roberto Orci had to rewrite the script to protect his hand throughout filming. LaBeouf said production was only delayed two days after his accident because Bay made up for it by filming second unit scenes, and LaBeouf recovered a few weeks earlier than expected, allowing him to return to the set. Near the end of filming, LaBeouf injured his eye when he hit a prop; the injury required several stitches. He resumed filming two hours later. While the movie grossed $800 million, it received mostly negative reviews by critics, with LaBeouf sharing a nomination for the "Worst Screen Couple of 2009" Razzie Award with "either Megan Fox or any Transformer." He reprised his role in the third live-action Transformers film, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which was released on June 28, 2011. He did not return for the fourth film in the series, Transformers: Age of Extinction, and Mark Wahlberg was cast as a new lead character.

2012–present: Subsequent career

LaBeouf has created short graphic novels, including Stale N Mate and Cyclical, and a webcomic series, Cheek Up's through the publishing company, The Campaign Book. In April 2012, he promoted them at Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo. In the same year, LaBeouf played a bootlegger in John Hillcoat's crime drama Lawless.

LaBeouf at the premiere of Fury in 2014

In February 2013, he pulled out of what would have been his Broadway debut, in Lyle Kessler's play Orphans, citing "creative differences" with co-star Alec Baldwin, although The New York Times and Baldwin himself maintain LaBeouf was fired. A month later, a film in which he starred alongside Robert Redford titled The Company You Keep was released.

LaBeouf co-starred with Brad Pitt and Logan Lerman in David Ayer's World War II-set film, Fury, which was released in October 2014. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called LaBeouf's performance "outstanding", whilst New York Daily News's Joe Neumaier commented that he "finally finds a role he can disappear into, without his image getting in the way." Calvin Wilson of St. Louis Post-Dispatch called LaBeouf's performance one of his best.

In 2015, LaBeouf starred in Sia's music video for "Elastic Heart" along with Maddie Ziegler. He also starred in the war-thriller film Man Down directed by Dito Montiel alongside Gary Oldman and Kate Mara. In 2016, LaBeouf starred in American Honey, directed by Andrea Arnold, playing the male lead role, Jake. In Variety, Guy Lodge wrote that "despite the apparent stunt casting of LaBeouf", he "easily delivers his best performance here, bleeding the eccentricities of his own celebrity persona into the character to fascinating, oddly moving effect". In 2017, he portrayed tennis player John McEnroe in the Swedish sports drama film Borg vs McEnroe.

In 2019, LaBeouf starred in the comedy-drama film The Peanut Butter Falcon, which premiered in March, and was released in August. In the same year, he portrayed a character based on his father in the film Honey Boy, which he also wrote. He penned the screenplay while in rehab and based it upon his life as an actor. Both The Peanut Butter Falcon and Honey Boy garnered acclaim from critics. The following year, LaBeouf starred in The Tax Collector, directed by David Ayer. In September 2020, he participated in a virtual reading of the comedy-drama film Fast Times at Ridgemont High. LaBeouf starred in the Netflix drama film Pieces of a Woman opposite Vanessa Kirby, directed by Kornél Mundruczó.

In 2023, LaBeouf made his stage debut in the premiere production of David Mamet's play Henry Johnson, playing the titular character's prison cellmate. In 2024, he played a lead role in Francis Ford Coppola's drama Megalopolis as Clodio Pulcher, the jealous cousin of the film's protagonist. He is set to star in the thriller Assassination, written by Mamet.

Performance art

LaBeouf at the 2014 Berlin International Film Festival

In early 2014, LaBeouf began collaborating with British artist and author of The Metamodernist Manifesto, Luke Turner, and Finnish artist Nastja Säde Rönkkö, embarking on a series of actions described by Dazed as "a multi-platform meditation on celebrity and vulnerability". Since then, LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner have engaged in numerous high-profile performance art projects, including #IAMSORRY (2014), #Allmymovies (2015), #Touchmysoul (2015), #Takemeanywhere (2016), and Hewillnotdivide.us (2017–2021).

On February 9, 2014, the artists caused controversy at the Berlin Film Festival when LaBeouf arrived at the red carpet wearing a brown paper bag over his head with the words "I am not famous anymore" written on it. In a conversation conducted as part of the trio's #Interview piece in November 2014, LaBeouf said that he was "heartbroken" and "genuinely remorseful and full of shame and guilt" at the start of their subsequent #Iamsorry performance, in which he occupied a Los Angeles gallery for six days wearing the paper bag and silently crying in front of visitors, but that "in the end I felt cared for however it came—it was beautiful, it blew me away."

In 2015, LaBeouf appeared in #Introductions, a half-hour video made by LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner in collaboration with Central Saint Martins Fine Art students, comprising a series of short monologues performed by LaBeouf in front of a green screen. One segment in the form of an exaggerated motivational speech, dubbed "Just Do It" after the Nike slogan, became an Internet meme after going viral within days of being released, spawning numerous remixes and parodies, and becoming the most searched for GIF of 2015 according to Google.

Personal life

Relationships

LaBeouf met British actress Mia Goth in 2012. On October 10, 2016, LaBeouf and Goth appeared to have married in a Las Vegas ceremony officiated by an Elvis impersonator. Two days later, a local official said that the pair were not legally married, but instead a commitment ceremony was performed. Later that month, LaBeouf confirmed during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that they had married. In September 2018, it was announced the couple had separated and filed for divorce. In February 2022, it was reported that Goth and LaBeouf had reconciled and she was pregnant with their first child. Their daughter was born in March 2022.

LaBeouf dated British musician FKA Twigs from 2018 to 2019. He began dating American actress Margaret Qualley in 2020 after they co-starred in her sister Rainey Qualley's short film music video "Love Me Like You Hate Me". The relationship reportedly ended in January 2021.

Politics

In 2015, LaBeouf endorsed Jeremy Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election in the United Kingdom. He told the Evening Standard: "I like Jeremy Corbyn. I like him in every way. British politics just got very exciting."

Religion

LaBeouf contributed an essay to the 2004 book I Am Jewish by Judea Pearl, in which he stated that he has a "personal relationship with God that happens to work within the confines of Judaism". LaBeouf had described himself as Jewish, but declared in 2007 that religion had "never made sense" to him. However, LaBeouf said in an interview in Interview magazine in October 2014 that "I found God doing [the film] Fury. I became a Christian man [...] Brad [Pitt] was really instrumental in guiding my head through this."

In an August 2022 interview with Bishop Robert Barron, LaBeouf said that he had fallen in love with the Catholic faith while studying for the titular role of the film Padre Pio and staying in a Capuchin monastery in the process. He stated that the Traditional Latin Mass played a key role in his conversion. In May 2023, LaBeouf confirmed that he was undergoing the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults. On 31 December 2023, LaBeouf was confirmed into the Catholic Church by Bishop Barron and it was said that he had expressed a wish to enter into the diaconate.

Selected filmography

Film

Television

Theatre

Music video

Video game

Web

Awards and nominations

See also

In Spanish: Shia LaBeouf para niños