kids encyclopedia robot

Shia LaBeouf facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Quick facts for kids
Shia LaBeouf
Shia LaBeouf 2022.jpg
LaBeouf at the 2022 Venice Film Festival
Born
Shia Saide LaBeouf

(1986-06-11) June 11, 1986 (age 37)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation
Years active 1996–present
Partner(s) Mia Goth
(2012–2018, 2020–present)
Children 1

Shia Saide LaBeouf (Listeni/ˈʃ.ə ləˈbʌf/ shy-Ə-_--buf; born June 11, 1986) is an American actor, performance artist, 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

Megan Fox and Shia Labeouf promoting Transformers in Paris (cropped)
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

In June 2012, Icelandic band Sigur Rós released a music video for the song "Fjögur Píanó". In 2012, Rob Cantor of Tally Hall produced a song describing LaBeouf as a murderous cannibal. In 2014, Cantor produced a music video based on this song. Despite the title and lyrics, the intent was humorous and non-serious, and LaBeouf appeared at the end of the video, applauding.

LaBeouf has created three short graphic novels Stale N Mate, Cyclical, and Let's ... Party, 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.

Shia Labeouf 2014
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. He next portrayed Jerôme Morris in the Lars von Trier-directed art film ...maniac, which premiered in December 2013. Meanwhile, at the film's screening at the Berlin Film Festival a tuxedoed LaBeouf walked the red carpet with a paper bag over his head with the words "I am not famous anymore" written upon it.

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. He is set to play a lead role in Francis Ford Coppola's drama Megalopolis and star in the thriller Assassination, written by Mamet.

Performance art

Shia LaBeouf Not Famous 2014
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 while filming ...maniac 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 their nuptials on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. 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 is currently undergoing the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults, and is scheduled to complete his conversion within the next seven months.

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1998 Christmas Path, TheThe Christmas Path Cal
Monkey Business Wyatt
2003 Holes Stanley "Caveman" Yelnats IV
Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd Lewis
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle Max Petroni
Battle of Shaker Heights, TheThe Battle of Shaker Heights Kelly Ernswiler
2004 I, Robot Farber
Let's Love Hate N/A Director and writer only; short film
2005 Constantine Chas Kramer
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind Asbel Voice role; English dub
Greatest Game Ever Played, TheThe Greatest Game Ever Played Francis Ouimet
2006 Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, AA Guide to Recognizing Your Saints Young Dito
Bobby Cooper
2007 Disturbia Kale Brecht
Surf's Up Cody Maverick Voice role
Transformers Sam Witwicky
2008 The Smallest River in Almirante N/A Executive producer only; short film
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Henry "Mutt Williams" Jones III
Eagle Eye Jerry Shaw / Ethan Shaw
2009 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Sam Witwicky
New York, I Love You Jacob
2010 Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps Jake Moore
2011 Transformers: Dark of the Moon Sam Witwicky
Born Villain N/A Director and co-writer only; short film
Maniac The Director Also director; short film
2012 Radioman Himself Documentary
Howard Cantour.com N/A Director only; short film
Lawless Jack Bondurant
Company You Keep, TheThe Company You Keep Ben Shepard
2013 Charlie Countryman Charlie Countryman
...maniac Jerôme Morris
2014 Fury Boyd Swan
2015 Man Down Gabriel Drummer
2016 LoveTrue N/A Executive producer only; documentary
American Honey Jake
Everyday Performance Artists Narrator Voice role; short film
2017 Borg vs McEnroe John McEnroe
2018 #TAKEMEANYWHERE Himself Also director and producer; documentary
2019 Honey Boy James Lort Also writer
The Peanut Butter Falcon Tyler
2020 The Tax Collector Creeper
Pieces of a Woman Sean Carson
2021 A Man Named Scott Himself Documentary
2022 Padre Pio Padre Pio
2024 Megalopolis dagger TBA Post-production

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1998 Caroline in the City Ethan Episode: "Caroline and the Bar Mitzvah"
Breakfast with Einstein Joey Television film
1999 Jesse Moe Episode: "Momma Was a Rollin' Stone"
Everything's Relative Young Marty Episode: "Prisoner of Love"
Suddenly Susan Ritchie Episode: "A Day in the Life"
Touched by an Angel Johnny Episode: "The Occupant"
X-Files, TheThe X-Files Richie Lupone Episode: "The Goldberg Variation"
2000 ER Darnel Smith Episode: "Abby Road"
Freaks and Geeks Herbert the Mascot Episode: "We've Got Spirit"
2000–2003 Even Stevens Louis Anthony Stevens 65 episodes
2001 Hounded Ronny van Dussel Television film
Nightmare Room, TheThe Nightmare Room Dylan Pierce Episode: "Scareful What You Wish For"
2002 Proud Family, TheThe Proud Family Johnny McBride Episode: "I Love You Penny Proud"; voice role
Tru Confessions Eddie Walker Television film
2003 Even Stevens Movie, TheThe Even Stevens Movie Louis Anthony Stevens Television film
Project Greenlight Himself / Kelly Ernswiler Season 2
Say What? Karaoke Guest judge 3 episodes
2005 Total Request Live Himself (co-host) 1 episode
2007 Saturday Night Live Himself (host) Episode: "Shia LaBeouf/Avril Lavigne"
2008 Episode: "Shia LaBeouf/My Morning Jacket"

Theatre

Year Title Role Playwright Venue
2023 Henry Johnson Gene David Mamet The Electric Lodge

Music video

Year Title Role Notes
2003 D-Tent BoysDig It Stanley "Caveman" Yelnats IV Also performer and songwriter
2009 Rumspringa – Minds Awake N/A Director only
Cage – I Never Knew You Cage's friend Also director
2012 Sigur RósFjögur píanó Man
2013 Future Unlimited – Haunted Love N/A Director only
2014 Rob Cantor – Shia LaBeouf Himself
2015 SiaElastic Heart Sia
2019 Baby KeemGang Activities N/A Director and editor only
2020 Rainsford – Love Me Like You Hate Me Boyfriend Danced with Margaret Qualley

Video game

Year Title Role Notes
2007 Surf's Up Cody Maverick Voice role
Transformers: The Game Sam Witwicky
2009 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Web

Year Title Role Notes
2008 5 More Friends Himself Public service announcement
2014 Be The Ball Himself Teaser
2015 #INTRODUCTIONS Various Short film
2019 Nightmare Before X-mas Himself Documentary

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Shia LaBeouf para niños

kids search engine
Shia LaBeouf Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.