‘Enjoying the ride’: ‘Stranger Things’ marks the TV debut of Arlington Heights teen

Budding actor Jake Connelly and his family were emerging from their Arlington Heights basement where they sheltered during a tornado warning nearly three years ago when he got the phone call that changed his life.

It was his agent from Chicago’s Gray Talent Group.

“If a talent agent calls you, it’s gotta be important,” Connelly joked.

With sirens sounding in the background, the agent informed him: “Jake, you’re going to Hawkins.”

As in Hawkins, Indiana, the fictional town where the hit Netflix show “Stranger Things” is set.

Connelly, 13, won the role of bully-turned-ally Derek Turnbow in the show’s recently concluded final season.

“I never believed I was actually going to be on ‘Stranger Things,’” said Connelly, a student at Thomas Middle School in Arlington Heights who started watching the show four years ago with his family.

“I'm honored the Duffer Brothers picked me for the role and entrusted the character of Derek to me,” said Connelly, who so impressed writer/director/showrunners Matt and Ross Duffer that they expanded his role.

Connelly has several Arlington Heights Park District productions to his credit, including the musicals “Madagascar: A Musical Adventure Jr.” and “Seussical Jr.” But his professional acting experience was limited to a commercial for the home improvement company Feldco.

Director Barry McGuire, a longtime friend of Jake’s mom, Kerri, envisioned a bespectacled youngster in the commercial, said Kerri Connelly. And Jake — a funny, outgoing, life-of-the-party sort — fit the bill of a son tattling on his dad to his mom.

“One thing led to the next,” said Kerri Connelly, and Gray Talent took Jake on as a client.

More auditions and a short film followed. Then came that momentous call which forced the close-knit family into one of the hardest decisions they’ve ever made, according to Kerri Connelly.

Accepting the role meant the family relocating to Atlanta, Georgia, where the series was filmed, for 11 months in 2024, upending older brother Ryan’s dreams of playing football for Buffalo Grove High School.

“We wanted to stay together,” said Kerri Connelly, but she and her husband, Phil, didn’t want to deprive Ryan of the opportunity to play football.

They decided Phil and Ryan would remain in Arlington Heights while Kerri and Jake moved to Atlanta.

“We knew we were a strong enough family,” said Kerri Connelly. “We knew we could make it. We promised each other that we’d come home, or they would come to Atlanta once a month.”

Friends and neighbors helped out the Connelly men left behind, and every night at bedtime, the family said good night on FaceTime.

Connelly enjoyed joking with his castmates off-camera as much as he enjoyed filming. The biggest challenges involved traveling to locations at 4 a.m. and filming into the wee hours of the morning, which his mom said was improved by a midnight pizza snack.

His next project is an indie feature film which he begins shooting next month in northern Illinois. His big dream is to work on a superhero movie.

“Those huge blockbusters, I would love to see how they tick,” he said.

As much as he enjoys it, Connelly isn’t sure he’ll make acting his career. He’s also interested in optometry. For now, he’s still auditioning, grateful for the amazing opportunities that have come his way.

“Being on ‘Stranger Things’ was such a great thing,” he said. “I’m enjoying it. I’m enjoying the ride.”