PHILADELPHIA — Penn students, if you happen to see Will Byers from "Stranger Things" hanging around the dorms this semester, you’re not in the Upside Down. He’s just pursuing a higher education.
Actor Noah Schnapp, who plays Will on the show, revealed in December that he would be attending the University of Pennsylvania, with Netflix sharing a video of him and his family excitedly reacting to his acceptance to the Ivy League school. In the clip, Schnapp can be seen wearing a Wharton School hoodie.
Now, in a newly published interview with Flaunt Magazine, Schnapp said that he’ll be living in the dorm like many other incoming freshmen at the school. Move-ins started this week, according to the Penn website.
Schnapp, however, won’t be studying film or drama — instead, his focus will be in business, as his Wharton hoodie suggested.
“I was thinking of going for acting,” Schnapp told Flaunt. “Acting was just kind of repetitive, and I wanted to try something new.”
He added that "Stranger Things" co-star Millie Bobby Brown is taking a similar approach to her education as a human services major at Purdue University, though she is attending that school virtually, according to Allure.
“She’s kind of learning about other things,” Schnapp said. “I thought it would make more sense to do something different. And business was a pretty clear next thing for me.”
Schnapp, it turns out, is already something of a businessman himself. He is a founder of the snack company TBH, which focuses on providing a more sustainable version of Nutella that the company makes without using palm oil. As he told Forbes last year ahead of TBH’s launch, harvesting palm oil is a significant contributor to deforestation.
In addition to preparing to attend Penn and working on his snack brand, Schnapp told Flaunt that he has also been working as a lifeguard “as a ‘just for fun thing.’ ”
“I’ve kind of grown up with a normal life and normal friends and stuff outside of 'Stranger Things,' so it’s kind of kept me grounded,” he said.
But most folks know Schnapp as his "Stranger Things" character Will, whom he has portrayed since 2016. The show’s fourth season was released in May, and its upcoming final season was announced back in February. A release date has yet to be announced.
And, like "Stranger Things" fans, Schnapp is a little emotional about the coming end.
“Will is like my baby,” he told Flaunt. “I’ve curated and built this character for years, and it’s very crazy to think that it will be over, before I knew it and that’s it.”
But, hey, at least there’ll be some more time to hit the books.
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