Gaten Matarazzo's Relationship With Lizzy Yu Started Before His Stranger Things Fame

When it first hit Netflix, few could have predicted how "Stranger Things" — a seemingly niche sci-fi series about a group of misfit pre-teens who discover monsters in their midst — would blow up. But 4 seasons and hundreds of millions of viewers later, here we are. The show has launched the careers of all its young stars, turning actor Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven) in particular into a household name. While not as big of a lead as Brown, Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson) is still a core member of the monster-fighting squad, and as such, has made it big. Celebrity Net Worth reports that Matarazzo hauls in around $250,000 an episode, and has a cool $5 million to his name at only 20 years old.

Now that the whole cast is famous, you can bet that every actor has their pick of men and women lining up to date them. Look no further than Brown, who's officially off the market now that she's engaged to Jon Bon Jovi's son. According to Seventeen, Sadie Sink (Max Mayfield), Noah Schnapp (Will Byers) and Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair) are reportedly single, but most of their on-screen buddies are in committed relationships. We're talking about Natalia Dyer (Nancy Wheeler) and Charlie Heaton (Jonathan Byers), who met on the show, Joe Keery (Steve Harrington) and Maika Monroe, as well as Matarazzo, who's been dating his current girlfriend for the past five years and counting.

You know when someone becomes famous, and suddenly everyone and their next door neighbor wants to be their friend? Gaten Matarazzo and girlfriend Lizzy Yu's relationship is the opposite. The pair went Instagram official in 2018, before Matarazzo's name blew up. Yu appeared in Matarazzo's homecoming pics in 2018, and in 2019, he followed up with a sweet anniversary post. "I can't believe that I've been with this gorgeous girl for an entire year. It feels like our first date was yesterday but it also feels like it's been ten years," he wrote, alongside a carousel of pics documenting cute moments together. Around the same time, Matarazzo gushed over his girlfriend in an interview with Us Weekly. "My family loves her, she's great. My brother and my sister get along with her great," he said. As for their under-the-radar date nights, "We play pool," Matarazzo added. It seems perfectly in line with their low-key romance, honestly!

Worth mentioning is the fact that Season 1 of "Stranger Things" debuted on Netflix in July 2016, while technically, Yu and Matarazzo weren't a couple until March 2018. However, as a supporting character in the show, Matarazzo wasn't fully in the spotlight until subsequent seasons. 1.35 billion viewers tuned in to watch the fourth installment of the show, compared to the ~14 million people who watched Season 1. Plus, judging by the years they've been together, Yu isn't with Matarazzo for clout. In fact, Yu has a burgeoning career of her own.

Perhaps taking the lead from her boyfriend, Lizzy Yu kick-started her acting career as of 2022. Per IMDb, she appeared as Amy in Ray Romano's "Somewhere in Queens," a comedy that premiered at Tribeca Film Festival. Yu is also credited for appearances in "Hagz," "May December," and "Year One," but her breakout role might still be in the works. She's currently slated to appear as Azula in the highly-anticipated live-action remake of "Avatar: The Last Airbender," which hits Netflix in 2024. According to Deadline, Azula is the "intensely driven princess of the Fire Nation," who will "stop at nothing to secure her position as heir to the throne." We imagine Gaten Matarazzo, who took Yu to the Tony Awards in 2022, is proud of how his girlfriend is stepping out on her own.

Despite the fact Matarazzo and Yu are barely out of their teenage years, they live together in a New Jersey-based apartment. "You know what's weird about it? Is that it doesn't feel weird," the "Stranger Things" alum told Esquire in 2022. When a couple has been together for five years, there's probably not much that weirds them out about each other.

As for the future, maybe these two will get married, or maybe they won't. But regardless of how their romance pans out, we have a feeling both Matarazzo and Yu are on the come-up.