Shia LaBeouf

Shia Saide LaBeouf grew up in Los Angeles's Echo Park district in a financially struggling family. His mother, Shayna Saide, was a visual artist, jewelry designer, and dancer, while his father, Jeffrey LaBeouf, worked as a professional clown. LaBeouf has described performing for his family as a way of coping with his parents' divorce and difficult circumstances.

Before acting, LaBeouf performed stand-up comedy around Los Angeles. He began appearing at The Improv at the age of 10 and found an agent after pretending to be his own manager. He later said that financial hardship initially motivated him to pursue acting.

LaBeouf began working in television during the 1990s, with appearances in programs including Caroline in the City, The X-Files, ER, and Freaks and Geeks. His breakthrough came as Louis Stevens in Disney Channel's Even Stevens, which ran from 2000 to 2003 and established him among young television audiences. His performance earned him the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series in 2003.

He made his feature-film debut in Holes (2003), playing Stanley Yelnats IV. He followed it with supporting roles in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, I, Robot, and Constantine, before portraying golfer Francis Ouimet in The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005). He also played the younger Dito Montiel in A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints and made his first short film, Let's Love Hate, as a director and writer.

LaBeouf's transition to mainstream film accelerated with Disturbia (2007), in which he played a teenager under house arrest who suspects that a neighbor is a serial killer. That same year, he starred as Sam Witwicky in Transformers, opposite Megan Fox. He reprised the role in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) and Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011), completing his run as the central character in the first three films of the franchise.

He also played Mutt Williams, the son of Indiana Jones, in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008). Other prominent roles during this period included Eagle Eye, Oliver Stone's Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, and The Company You Keep, in which he acted alongside Robert Redford. LaBeouf received the BAFTA Rising Star Award in 2008.

After his major studio roles, LaBeouf increasingly appeared in independent and auteur-driven films. He worked with Lars von Trier on Nymphomaniac, played a soldier in David Ayer's Fury, and received strong reviews for his performance as Jake in Andrea Arnold's American Honey. In Borg vs McEnroe, he portrayed tennis player John McEnroe, while The Peanut Butter Falcon featured him as a troubled fisherman who helps a young man pursue a career in professional wrestling.

LaBeouf wrote and starred in Honey Boy (2019), an autobiographical film inspired by his childhood and his relationship with his father. He wrote the screenplay while receiving treatment and played a character based on his father. Later credits include Pieces of a Woman, The Tax Collector, Padre Pio, Megalopolis, and Salvable. In 2023, he made his stage debut in David Mamet's play Henry Johnson.

In 2014, LaBeouf began collaborating with British artist and author Luke Turner and Finnish artist Nastja Säde Rönkkö. Their collective, LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner, developed public projects focused on celebrity, vulnerability, participation, and the relationship between performer and audience.

Their projects included #IAMSORRY, #Allmymovies, #Touchmysoul, #Takemeanywhere, and Hewillnotdivide.us. LaBeouf drew widespread attention at the 2014 Berlin Film Festival by wearing a paper bag over his head bearing the words “I am not famous anymore.” In #Introductions, he delivered the motivational monologue later known as “Just Do It,” which became an internet meme and generated numerous remixes and parodies.

LaBeouf's public profile was affected by plagiarism accusations involving his short film Howard Cantour.com and several graphic novels. The short film was criticized for its similarities to Dan Clowes's comic Justin M. Damiano. LaBeouf removed the film and issued apologies, while Clowes said that he had never spoken to or met LaBeouf.

He was arrested for disorderly conduct, harassment, and criminal trespass after an incident at New York City's Studio 54 theater in 2014, pleading guilty to disorderly conduct. In 2017, he was arrested in Savannah, Georgia, on charges including public intoxication, disorderly conduct, and obstruction. He later pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct, was found guilty of obstruction, and received probation and treatment requirements. A 2020 battery and petty-theft case ended after he completed a diversion program. In 2020, FKA Twigs filed a lawsuit against him that was later settled on undisclosed terms.