Mike Wheeler

Mike is the de facto leader of his small band of friends in Hawkins, Indiana — organized, earnest, and fiercely loyal to the people he loves. When a strange girl and a missing friend upend his ordinary middle-school life, he throws himself into finding answers with a stubborn, protective intensity.

Wolfhard plays Mike's decency without ever making it dull; he's the planner and the heart of the group, the one who insists on doing right by people even when it costs him. The show trusts him with sincerity in an era of ironic teen characters, and that earnestness is what makes him endearing.