Drew Starkey

Starkey grew up primarily in Hickory, North Carolina, after his family moved around the Blue Ridge Mountains area. His father, Todd Starkey, is a college basketball coach. As a child, Drew played baseball and basketball and learned to play the guitar and piano.

He became serious about acting during his freshman year at St. Stephens High School after joining a drama class. He graduated from Western Carolina University in 2016 with double majors in English and theater performance, earning magna cum laude honors. After college, he moved to Atlanta to join two friends who were forming a production company and began auditioning for acting roles.

Starkey's breakthrough came with the role of Rafe Cameron in Netflix's Outer Banks. He landed the part in 2019, and the series premiered in 2020. Rafe is a troubled teenager, and the role became Starkey's best-known performance.

Starkey played Rafe across the show's first four seasons and was credited with 49 episodes. His other television work includes appearances in Ozark, Dead Silent, Good Behavior, Scream: Resurrection, and The Terminal List.

Starkey began his screen career with small roles in television and film before appearing in several 2018 projects. He played Garrett Laughlin in Love, Simon and Brian MacIntosh Jr., also identified as Officer 115, in The Hate U Give. He also appeared in American Animals that year.

His subsequent film roles included Tommy Matson in The Devil All the Time, Tanner Van Holt in Embattled, Trevor in Hellraiser, and Zach MacLaren in The Other Zoey. In Queer, directed by Luca Guadagnino, he played Eugene Allerton opposite Daniel Craig. His listed upcoming projects include Onslaught, Deep Cuts, and King Snake.