Lucas Hedges (born December 12, 1996) is an American actor. Born to the filmmaker Peter Hedges, he studied theater at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
Hedges began his acting career by playing supporting roles in Wes Anderson's comedy-drama Moonrise Kingdom (2012) and the crime biopic Kill the Messenger (2014). He made his breakthrough in 2016 by playing a sardonic teenage orphan in Kenneth Lonergan's drama Manchester by the Sea, which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and made Lucas the eighth-youngest nominee in the category. Hedges went on to star as an aggressive youth in an off-Broadway production of Yen, and had supporting roles in the coming-of-age film Lady Bird and the drama film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri in 2017.
In 2018, Hedges played the lead roles of a teenager forced into a gay conversion therapy program in Boy Erased and a drug addict in Ben Is Back, both drama films. The latter was written and directed by his father, and the former earned him a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Drama. Hedges also made his Broadway debut in a revival of Lonergan's drama The Waverly Gallery.
Last Updated: June 9, 2021
