Shia LaBeouf
NAME
Shia Saide LaBeouf
BORN
June 11, 1986 in Los Angeles, California, USA
BASED
Los Angeles, California, USA
YEARS ACTIVE
1996 – present
WHO
American actor, performance artist, and filmmaker Shia LaBeouf, born 1986 in Los Angeles, California, first shot to fame as a teen in the Disney Channel series Even Stevens, which won him a Daytime Emmy Award in 2003.
Growing up in LA’s Echo Park district, his formative years were turbulent; the family was struggling for money, and his father was abusive, dealing with addiction. Acting became LaBeouf’s way out. Many years later he would open up to the world about his childhood traumas, and manage to turn it into something positive.
In 2007, he became Shia with the whole world for his performance in the blockbuster juggernaut Transformers and its subsequent franchise, along with his role in Spielberg’s Indiana Jones the following year, which catapulted him into superstardom. He was awarded the Rising Star Award at the BAFTAs in 2008.
In between he directed his first short film Let’s Love Hate (2004) and the music video for rapper Cage’s “I Never Knew You” in 2009, to which LaBeouf stated: : “I’m 22 and I’m directing my favorite rapper’s music video. This shit is better than riding unicorns.”
Between 2010 and 2014 he featured in several notable films, including the Oliver Stone-directed film Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps in 2010 (the sequel to Wall Street from 1987), Lars von Trier’s bold Nymphomaniac in 2013, and the epic WWII movie Fury alongside Brad Pitt in 2014, receiving widespread acclaim for his performance.
Alongside his on-screen acting, LaBeouf revealed a more eccentric side and new means of self-expression with his many public performance art projects, (as part of artist trio LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner), which had fans scratching their heads on more than one occasion. He sported a brown paper bag over his head which read “I am not famous anymore” on the red carpet at the 2014 Berlin Film Festival. The same year he ran 144 laps of Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum donning awe-inspiring purple leggings. He live-streamed himself watching all his movies (and took a nap during Transformers: Dark Side Of The Moon), and delivered perhaps the most cogent motivational speech in history, “Just Do It,” in 2015. He also spent 24 hours in an elevator in Oxford University in 2016.
In 2016 he returned to the screen for the lauded coming-of-age road drama American Honey, which was awarded the Jury Prize at 2016 Cannes Film Festival. LaBeouf famously got 12 tattoos in-between shooting – two on his knees depict Missy Elliott. Is he a big fan then? Not particularly. He would later cause headlines again for his choice of ink, his infamous “CREEPER” tattoo emblazoned across his lower abdomen in 2019.
Intermixed with the latter half of his career, his increasing public antics and several run-ins with the law started to overshadow his career, landing him in the press for all the wrong reasons. It culminated in his Savannah arrest in 2017, where doctors diagnosed him with PTSD and he checked into rehab.
It was the best thing that could have happened. LaBeouf penned the autobiographical screenplay for Honey Boy as a form of therapy, and sent it to personal friend and director Alma Har’el. The film – where LaBeouf plays his own father – expected to be released in 2019, is one of the most anticipated films of the year, receiving raving critical reviews and is billed as one of LaBeouf’s best performances. By his own admission, it saved his life and also his career.
In 2019 he also starred in the feel-good adventure comedy The Peanut Butter Falcon.
Elsewhere, LaBeouf has simultaneously perfected his personal style in the past few years emerging as a bona fide fashion icon – unwittingly – flooding the internet and our Instafeeds with his NFG sartorial combos of vintage tees, dad hats, and fitted sweatpants worn interchangeable with military boots, crocs, sneakers and UGGs.
There’s an Instagram account in honor of his style charting his normcore looks – @shiasoutfits – and he was also tapped by Kanye West who visited his house and raided his wardrobe in 2018. Fashion conspiracy theorists argue that he’s even the inspiration for West’s YEEZY line.
