Noah Schnapp’s Controversy Timeline: Every Moment That Kept the Stranger Things Star in the Spotlight

Noah Schnapp is one of those rare kid-actor success stories who also seems to find new ways to trend for stuff he probably wishes would vanish from the internet. Career-wise, he has receipts. Personally, it has gotten messy. Here is the full picture, no pieces left out.

From Spielberg kid to the Upside Down… and beyond

Schnapp popped up early in Bridge of Spies and voiced Charlie Brown in The Peanuts Movie before Stranger Things hit Netflix in 2016 and turned him into Will Byers, the kid at the center of the show’s first big mystery. He stole scenes, got bumped up to series regular in season 2, and Will has stayed a key piece of the story ever since.

He kept working in between seasons too: Abe, Waiting for Anya, Hubie Halloween, The Tutor. Off screen, he got into Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania and spun that into business ventures — a sustainability-minded snack brand called To Be Honest and a delivery-only virtual restaurant, TenderFix.

Playing Will helped him come out

In February 2023, Schnapp publicly came out as gay on TikTok. A few months later, in August 2023, he told Variety that acknowledging Will’s sexuality on the show pushed him to be honest about his own.

"Once I did fully embrace that Will was gay, it was just an exponential speed towards accepting it for myself. I would be in a completely different place if I didn’t have Will to portray, and to embrace and help me accept myself. I think if I never played that character, I probably would still be closeted."

He also confirmed then that, yes, Will is gay. Timing-wise, all of this unfolded as Stranger Things headed for its fifth and final season.

The other headlines (aka the internet parts)

• 2020: The 'Freaky Friday' clip — An old video resurfaced of Schnapp and friends rapping along to Chris Brown’s verse in Lil Dicky’s Freaky Friday, and people on X pushed #NoahSchnappIsOverParty after claiming he said the N-word. He jumped on Instagram Stories to deny it, saying he always replaced the slur with the word 'neighbor' — something he said his summer-camp friends did too — and that he would never use the slur. He apologized for even using a replacement and said he should have just kept quiet. He also argued his friends would not have posted the video if he had actually said the word. Two months earlier, he had already been posting clarifications on X after getting dragged for being friendly with someone behind a controversial Instagram fan page that had taken shots at Millie Bobby Brown; he said he and Millie were fine and on good terms.

• May 2022: The Doja Cat DMs — Schnapp posted a TikTok showing messages Doja Cat sent him about his costar Joseph Quinn. She asked if Joseph was single and if Noah could connect them; he told her to DM Joseph directly. Very online, very ill-advised. The screenshots blew up, and two months later Doja went on Instagram Live to call the post immature and 'socially unaware.' Schnapp said he apologized to her privately, commented on TikTok that everything was cool, and told Variety he is goofy on social media and did not think it through. He said she accepted the apology, apologized for how she reacted, and that the whole thing was a 'two minute' drama made bigger by the internet.

• January 2024: Israel-Hamas backlash — A clip circulated of Schnapp filming people holding 'Zionism is sexy' stickers. He is Jewish, and he was also accused online of liking a post that mocked Palestinians in Gaza. That sparked calls from some fans to boycott the final season of Stranger Things or to get him removed from it. He posted a TikTok saying his views were being distorted and that he wants peace, safety, and security for all innocent people. He said he had open talks with friends of Palestinian background, that he wants the hostages in Gaza returned to their families, an end to the killing of innocents in Palestine — many of them women and children — and an end to violence on both sides. He stressed he is against the killing of any innocent people and hopes the two communities can one day live together peacefully, and he asked for more compassion online in 2024 toward everyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, background, country of birth, or sexuality.

• April 2026: The fake boyfriend post — He put up an Instagram photo with a mystery guy and captioned it 'One month of us.' The next day he followed with, 'April fools.' Not subtle, but it did what April Fools posts always do: got attention and annoyed people in equal measure.

Where that leaves him

On screen, he is still the kid from Hawkins who grew into one of Stranger Things’ emotional anchors. Off screen, he is an ambitious student-entrepreneur who has learned (the hard way) that the internet never forgets. The highs are real. So are the self-inflicted lows. And if history is any guide, we will probably be talking about both again soon.