Stranger Things fans seem to have this unquenchable thirst for Joe Keery. They want to know everything about his life including his relationship. A quick Google search reveals that the Netflix star has been dating Maika Monroe for almost five years now. While fans may be searching for information on Joe, they're likely to immediately recognize the woman who is so often seen draped around his shoulders.
Maika Monroe (not her original name) is a sensation in her own right. While her boyfriend may appear to be the bigger star, Maika is one of the more prolific actors of her generation. While she's still at the beginning of her tremendous career as an actor, she's already appeared in some pretty notable projects, stealing the show each and every time. Here's how she really became famous as well as why she changed her name...
Where Is Maika Monroe From And How Did She Become Famous?
Maika Monroe was born to a construction worker and a sign language interpreter in Santa Barbara, California. At the age of 17, she decided to move down to the Dominican Republic in order to train in kite surfing. Even though she was still in high school at the time, Maika's passion for kiting dominated everything. Even her love of acting which she had already begun to pursue. However, she didn't really follow her acting desires until she moved to Los Angeles after a short time in Cabarete, Dominican Republic.
There's no doubt that her first big break was in the 2013 Kate Winslet movie, Labor Day. But she had already done a few small roles in projects like The Bling Ring with Emma Watson and Denis Quaid's sports movie At Any Price. Following her work in Labor Day, Maika became one of the busiest young actors in Hollywood. Soon, she was cast in major roles in two extremely popular horror movies, It Follows and The Guest. This is where she really stood out as a performer.
During a 2018 interview with Vulture, Maika explained that she had no control over being cast in two horror films back-to-back. Of course, taking two horror movies can easily set an actor up for being typecast.
"As an actor, a lot is out of your hands, and when you’re starting out, you take any job you can get. Gotta make money, gotta pay rent, gotta feed yourself. Walking away from those two movies, I had no idea they’d be as successful as they were, so my only thought was, I better find something to do! I went through a bit of a phase focused on character and trying different personas I hadn’t tried on before. But in terms of general direction for my work, right now, I’m just trying to work with directors that inspire me," Maika said. "I don’t avoid this genre or that genre. I’ll do whatever seems cool."
Since It Follows and The Guest, Maika was cast alongside Nick Robinson and her friend Chloe Grace Moretz in The 5th Wave, Independence Day: Resurgence, Hot Summer Nights with Timothee Chalamet, I'm Not Here, Greta, After Everything, and Shia LaBeouf's acclaimed indie film Honey Boy. Maika is also set to appear in three new major films; Watcher, Significant Other, and God Is A Bullet.
There's simply no slowing down her career. Maika attributes part of her success to the fact that she is so disciplined. This is a trait that she claims was developed while learning to be a kitesurfer.
"Kiteboarding helped me form the determination that has gotten me through a lot of my acting work. When you’re trying to learn a new trick, you’ve got to do it over and over and over again before you can land it. That’s not so different from running a scene until you’ve got it down, when you know you can really nail it. It’s also kind of like auditioning, where you’ve got to hear no 50 times before hearing yes, where there’s nothing else to do but keep picking yourself up and throwing yourself at it. They both give you tough skin."
Of course, having tough skin is a necessity in a cut-throat business like film. Fortunately, Maika has a lot of great people in her life, including her famous boyfriend Joe Keery.
How Did Maika Monroe Meet Joe Keery?
While some sources claim that Maika and Joe met on the set of After Everything in 2017, Joe told GQ that the pair actually met at a Hollywood party around the same time. They quickly fell for one another and are still together in 2022.
Even though the pair are extremely private about their relationship, they have been seen at numerous events together. Not only this but Joe refers to Maika constantly in interviews. Although usually in a charmingly self-deprecating way such as not understanding why she likes him.
Why Did Maika Monroe Change Her Real Name?
It turns out, Maika Monroe is actually the real-life Lady Bird. At least, she appeared to be flattered by that comparison during her interview with Vulture in 2019. Much like Lady Bird in the Saoirse Ronan movie, Maika ultimately decided to pick her own first name. She was born Dillion Monroe Buckley but that was not the name she wanted to use. Maika didn't change her name for career reasons like why Bruno Mars changed his name. Of course, so many celebrities have made similar decisions at the start of their careers. But not Maika. She just didn't identify with her birth name when she was a little kid.
"The deal was that I was named Dillon at birth, and then when I was 7 years old, I asked my mother about when she was naming me. She told me that she was torn between Dillon and Maika, and I told her, 'Maika is meant to be my name.' At 7, in the first grade, I went to my class and said, 'I will no longer respond to Dillon. I am Maika now.' Told my neighbors, my parents supported it, everybody. Since that day, I’ve just been Maika."