Who Is 'Stranger Things' New Standout Jake Connelly? 5 Things to Know About the Netflix Series' Newcomer

Before coming to the fictional town of Hawkins, Stranger Things newcomer Jake Connelly was busy enjoying his childhood back home in Chicago.

Born in 2012, the 13-year-old star is attending eighth grade at a middle school in the Windy City, where he plays football with his schoolmates.

"Well, I've been doing some football lately. Just finished our season a couple of weeks ago," he told Teen Vogue. "I'm really glad to have a team like that. It's really good for character building, just having everybody be so together in a tight-knit team. One weak link and you're out."

Describing his position on the team, the Chicago Bears fan shared, "I play on the line. I'm a right tackle on the outside, and I'm on the inside on defense."

According to his IMDb page, Connelly starred in the short film Between the Silence before landing a role on Stranger Things. He also did a couple of Windows commercials while preparing for his acting career.

"My mom's friend directs Windows commercials here in Chicago, so he was like, 'Hey, I need a kid who looks like Jake to be in one of our commercials, and does he want to do it?' And we were like, 'You know what? Why not? Let's just take a chance on it,'" he shared.

In the same Teen Vogue interview, Connelly revealed began attending auditions after signing with a talent agency — including for Stranger Things.

"One night we had a tornado warning — actually, we were in the basement. Our talent agency asked us to hop on a call, and we were like, 'We don't got anything better to do,'" he recalled. "We're just sitting in the basement waiting it out, and we got on, and everybody from the agency was on there and they just went to us, 'Jake, you're going to Hawkins.'"

He ultimately scored the role of Derek Turnbow, Holly Wheeler's classmate who is also known as "Dips--- Derek" and "Delightful Derek."

Co-creator Matt Duffer admitted that the character was supposed to be a "generic bully," but Connelly helped change those plans.

"He was just so charming and hilarious that we started to gradually increase the size of his role throughout the season," Duffer said. "So, not unlike Steve Harrington, Derek started out as a stereotypical bully, but grew into something much more compelling — all thanks to Jake."

For Connelly, being cast in Stranger Things was a dream come true.

"A couple of years before I got cast, my family and I, we would always watch an episode of the show before we went to bed, and we kind of binge-watched the whole thing in one year," he said.

Connelly also told The Wrap he began watching the show "probably around when Season 4 came out," adding, "As a family, we sat down every night and watched an episode before bed. It was just so fun seeing everything that my mom grew up with in the '80s."

When asked about his favorite Stranger Things character, Connelly said he loves Joe Kerry's Steve.

"The character arc was just so amazing, seeing him [go] from the stereotypical jock into a loving, caring person," he told Teen Vogue.