Gaten Matarazzo and Elizabeth Yu each became some of young Hollywood’s brightest stars thanks to their respective hit Netflix shows. But what you might not know is that they’re high school sweethearts who have been dating for nearly a decade. Meaning: they’ve been together almost as long as Gaten played one of my personal comfort characters, Dustin Henderson, on Stranger Things. Okay, talk about a power couple!
Their relationship is still going strong now, and since Elizabeth is reprising her role as Princess Azula in season 2 of Avatar: The Last Airbender, now seems like a fab time to go down memory lane and see how these two first met. Check out Gaten and Elizabeth’s full relationship timeline ahead—and get ready to “awww” multiple times.
2017
Per People, Elizabeth and Gaten actually met as teens on the Fourth of July all the way back in 2017.
Alexa, play “End Game” by Taylor Swift…and fast-forward to Ed Sheeran’s verse: “After the storm, something was born on the Fourth of July / I’ve passed days without fun, this endgame is the one.”
2018
The pair went to Pinelands Regional High School in Ocean County, New Jersey, together and they officially started dating in March 2018!
Later that same year, Lizzy hard-launched Gaten in her Instagram feed from the set of Stranger Things season 3. Casual!
Gaten also gushed about Lizzy during an interview with Us Weekly in September, where he revealed, “My family loves her, she’s great. My brother and my sister get along with her great.”
2019
The high school sweethearts attended prom together, and excuse me while my heart is melting at this (since-deleted) pic from Lizzy’s Insta feed:
2021
Gaten and Lizzy graduated high school together, and he also celebrated her birthday with a cute Instagram post.
“Happy Birthday to one of the funniest, sweetest, kindest, most loving people I’ve ever known,” he wrote at the time. “I hope this day was as incredible as you could have ever wanted. Also you’re still a loser. Happy 19th goob. Love you”
2022
The couple made their red carpet debut at the Stranger Things 4 premiere in New York on May 14.
A month later, they pulled up to the Tony Awards, where Gaten presented an award.
2023
Gaten celebrated his fifth anniversary with Elizabeth with a sweet tribute on Instagram, writing, “Holy shit. Five years. And yet again. I miss the post by one minute. Thanks for putting up with me every day. I love you.”
Later in November, the couple stepped out for the premiere of Elizabeth’s movie May December at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, looking reeeeall cute.
2024
During an interview with The Cut, Elizabeth revealed that she and Gaten lived together and they collect cool fan art.
“We have that sporadically around our apartment. We have to keep it around because it’s so good!” she gushed, adding, “There’ll be little paintings of him and his cast members or like, bracelets that people have made him.”
Then, Gaten supported Lizzy at the Avatar: The Last Airbender world premiere after-party at TAO on February 15.
A few months later in the summer, the couple and Gaten’s Stranger Things costar/real-life roomie/best friend Finn Wolfhard saw Oh! Mary on Broadway and snapped pics backstage with Cole Escola and co.
2025
Elizabeth attended the UK premiere of Stranger Things 5 with Gaten in coordinating earth-toned outfits in November.
2026
During an April 2026 appearance on Chelsea Handler’s Dear Chelsea podcast, Gaten opened up about how he and Lizzy have “survived” so long as a couple.
“A big key to it is thriving through distance,” he said at the time. “So much of our work has to do with us leaving the city and being able to communicate through that and do it very well was kind of a tell-tale sign that this was working pretty well. It’s very rare, I think, that it can feel good.”
He added, “What’s great is that our home base is the same. So anytime we go and travel for work, we know we’re coming back to each other here in the city,” clarifying that they live “very close to each other.”
Elizabeth then walked the red carpet for Avatar: The Last Airbender’s season 2 premiere in L.A. with Gaten on June 23, and damn, do they clean up nicely!
During an interview with Cosmopolitan published ahead of the season 2 premiere, Lizzy opened up about what it’s been like to date in the public eye after all these years.
“When it comes to being super public, I’m in a relationship with another actor, and I think that because we are both in the public eye, the most beautiful part about the relationship is that when we are together, it’s just for us,” she revealed. “And a lot of those things are something I learned from him: the importance of separation of personal life and professional life. So that also has been a huge lesson to me.”
Dare I say I hope their love is a never-ending story? (Sorry, had to!) Keep up here for more updates on Gaten and Lizzy as they come.
