Shia Saide LaBeouf ( SHY-ə lə-BUF; born June 11, 1986) is an American actor and filmmaker. His accolades include a BAFTA Award and Daytime Emmy Award.
LaBeouf began his acting career at a young age, appearing in small roles on television. His breakthrough came as Louis Stevens in the Disney Channel series Even Stevens (2000–2003), before he transitioned to film with starring roles in Holes (2003) and The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005). LaBeouf subsequently starred in a string of commercially successful films, including Disturbia (2007), Surf's Up (2007), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), Eagle Eye (2008), and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010). He also starred as Sam Witwicky in the first three Transformers films (2007–2011), which collectively grossed over $2 billion worldwide.
Over the next decades, LaBeouf experienced career setbacks amid multiple controversies and legal issues. He continued acting and starred in independent films, earning praise for his performances in American Honey (2016), Borg vs McEnroe (2017), Honey Boy (2019), The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019), Pieces of a Woman (2020), and Salvable (2025). As a director, LaBeouf's credits include short films and music videos. He has also pursued a variety of public performance art projects with LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner since 2014.
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 had a bar mitzvah. 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 while 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 School/USC Magnet, which comprises 32nd St USC Visual & Performing Arts Magnet (kindergarten - 5th grade) and LAUSD/USC Media Arts and Engineering (6th - 12th grade), 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.
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 2000, LaBeouf began to become known among young audiences by 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 2003, 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 Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Rager (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 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 took place in 2008. Due to LaBeouf's injury from his car accident, director Michael Bay and…