"Shooting Stars" Actor Caleb McLaughlin Actually Got His Start in a Disney Broadway Fave

While McLaughlin may have gotten his first acting role in the Glimmerglass Opera House's production of "Lost in the Stars," his first starring role was on Broadway. From 2012 to 2014, he played his dream role of Young Simba in "The Lion King," becoming the longest-running actor to play the role. "My parents took me to see 'The Lion King' two years before I got the job," McLaughlin previously told Neu Neu Media in 2019. "I just knew that I wanted to be Simba. A few months later, I started community theater and then I was the right age to audition. There were like, five auditions before I got the part. I was young and I realized I was blessed to get it. So many kids auditioned more than once, some ten to eleven times."

It's no secret McLaughlin has a love of dancing, although he doesn't have much time to do it anymore. "I've been professionally dancing in a class with someone teaching me the basics, but I haven't been dancing too much lately because of my schedule," he told Neu Neu Media in the same interview. He got his start at the Happy Feet Dance School before eventually studying at The Harlem School of the Arts under former "The Lion King" producer Aubrey Lynch.

The last time McLaughlin rode a horse prior to filming "Concrete Cowboy," was his sister's sixth birthday. "This was an intense training that I had to do. It was nothing like I've ever done before. I spent like a week before actually hopping on the horse just building a relationship with a horse," he told Decider in 2021. "A lot of people don't realize—it's not, 'Okay, I'm gonna hop on a horse and say "Yeehaw!" and ride out into the sunset.' It's like, you have to build this special, spiritual bond with this horse. When you're training with the horse, the horse is also training with you."

Since R&B is one of McLaughlin's favorite genres of music, it made sense that he portrayed Ricky Bell on BET's "The New Edition Story." Some of his favorite artists include New Edition, Mint Condition, Jodeci, Joe, and Chi.

McLaughlin has long desired to make R&B music of his own, telling Coup De Main in 2019, "I realized how much I love music, and I love the art of music — I want to do it." He made that dream a reality in 2021 with the release of his first single, "Neighborhood." He released his second single, "Soul Travel" (above) in 2022.

If you'd like to know who's behind Lucas's trademark bandana, you can thank McLaughlin. "I take that idea. 100% me, no one else. I'm very proud of it," he told Flaunt in 2020. His "Stranger Things"-style isn't the only fashion move he's making. "It's not that I like fashion — I like things that make people say, 'Oh okay, that's how he is!' when they look at me, things that reflect my colorful personality," he shared with Neu Neu Media.

McLaughlin was still performing in Signature Theatre's production of "The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek" when he got the audition for Lucas in "Stranger Things." "I remember auditioning for a whole bunch of series that I didn't get. I kept getting rejected," he told Backstage in 2020. He was still upset about the rejection when he made his decision to keep trying. "I was about to tell my mom I didn't want to audition for this, but then I was like, 'You know what? I'll do it because this is what I wanna do. I wanna act.'"

Just like he could dance and sing as well as Bell for his role in "The New Edition Story," McLaughlin also has some basketball skills. While he may not measure up to his "Shooting Star" character Joyce's height of 6 feet 1 inch (McLaughlin is 5 feet 7 inches tall), he's still talented at the sport. "Caleb has so many different elements to him," McLaughlin told Collider in 2023. "I'm an artist. I have music out right now. I have more music coming, I can play different roles. I can play basketball. There's just so much more to my life than people know."