American actor (born 1986)
Shia Saide LaBeouf ( ; 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 ' and ', 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), "" (2010), "Lawless" (2012), "The Company You Keep" (2012), "Nymphomaniac" (2013), "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 &amp; Turner.
Early life.
LaBeouf was born on June 11, 1986, in Los Angeles, California. He is the only child of visual artist, jewelry designer and dancer Shayna Saide and professional clown Jeffrey LaBeouf. His mother died of heart failure in August 2022. LaBeouf's mother was Jewish, and his Cajun father is Christian. He has stated that he was raised around "both sides" — he was baptized and Bar Mitzvahed. One of the camps he attended was Christian. He embraced the Catholic faith 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 has stated that during his childhood, his father was "on drugs" and was placed in drug rehabilitation for heroin addiction, while LaBeouf's mother was "trying to hold down the fort." During a period when his father was in rehab for his addictions, when Labeouf was around the age of 10, he overheard his mother being raped by a stranger in their home.
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 has also said he was subjected to abuse by his father, who once pointed a gun at his son during a Vietnam War flashback. LaBeouf remains close to and financially supports his father, as he did for his mother until her death.
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 starred in "Disturbia", a thriller released on April 13, 2007, as a teenager under house arrest who suspects that his neighbor is a serial killer, which he considered a "character-driven" role. 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 science fiction film "Transformers" opposite Megan Fox. He played the lead character, Sam Witwicky, a man involved in the conflict between Autobots and Decepticons. The film succeeded at the box office, beginning a film franchise. 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, 2008. Josh Bell of "Las Vegas Weekly" said he "makes a credible bid for action-hero status, although his occasional stabs at emotional depth don't really go anywhere." In February 2009, 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 "" (2010). Aside from directing the short film, LaBeouf directed the music video for Kid Cudi's song "Marijuana", which he filmed at the 2010 Cannabis Cup.
He appeared in the Oliver Stone-directed film "" (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", '. Filming took place in 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 commercially successful, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" garnered negative reviews from critics, with LaBeouf sharing a nomination for the "Worst Screen Couple of 2009" Razzie Award with "either Megan Fox or any Transformer." He returned to star in ', the third installment in the film series, released in June 2011. It received poor reviews, became the tenth film to gross over $1 billion, and marked LaBeouf's final time starring in a "Transformers" film.
2012–present: Subsequent career.
In June 2012, Icelandic band Sigur Rós released a music video for the song "Fjögur Píanó". It depicts "a man and woman locked in a never-ending cycle of addiction and desire", in which LaBeouf stars and appears nude. 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 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 Fucking Party", and a webcomic series, "Cheek Up's" through the publishing company, The Campaign Book. In April 2012, he promoted them at Chicago Comic &amp; Entertainment Expo. In the same year, LaBeouf played a bootlegger in John Hillcoat's crime drama "Lawless".
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 erotic art film "Nymphomaniac", 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. 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.
In early