Signature role
Max Mayfield in Stranger Things
Skateboard, Walkman, red hair: Max is the part that took Sink from Broadway kid to a name people know.
Casting first thought the 14-year-old too old. She asked for more sides, took four callbacks, and read with Gaten Matarazzo and Caleb McLaughlin. Matt Duffer later called the choice a no-brainer.
She had to learn to skateboard, fell on day one, and later said she hated the training. Season 4 pushed Max’s trauma and nerve furthest; Rolling Stone called the work poignant and emotionally raw.
It is not her only work, but it is how most people find her. The full seasons and awards live on the works page. Here the point is simpler: without Max, The Whale, Broadway, and Marvel are harder to imagine.