Get to Know Dylan Arnold, the Rising Star Behind Theo on ‘You’
Published Oct. 16 2021, 1:07 p.m. ET
One of the new faces joining You in Season 3 is actor Dylan Arnold. On the Netflix show, Dylan plays Theo, a college student who develops ill-advised feelings for Quinn (Victoria Pedretti) and who has a complicated relationship with his stepfather.
Of course, you might know Dylan, 27, from any number of other high-profile Hollywood projects. In fact, on Friday, Oct. 15, the same day that Netflix dropped You Season 3, Universal Pictures released Halloween Kills, a horror movie sequel in which Dylan has a supporting role.
Dylan Arnold has played a lot of boyfriend parts.
In 2018’s Halloween and this year’s Halloween Kills, Dylan plays Cameron Elam, boyfriend of Allyson Nelson (Andi Matichak), who’s the granddaughter of protagonist Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis).
And in 2019’s After and the following year’s After We Collided, Dylan plays Noah Porter, the boyfriend that Tessa Young (Josephine Langford) leaves for Hardin Scott (Hero Fiennes Tiffin).
Dylan’s other film credits include Laggies, 4 Minute Mile, and Mudbound.
On television, meanwhile, Dylan has guest-starred in When We Rise, The Purge, Into the Dark, and S.W.A.T. He also had an eight-episode arc in Nashville, playing Twig Wysecki, a boyfriend of Maddie Conrad (Lennon Stella).
He attended UNC School of the Arts, alma mater of many of his collaborators.
Dylan is a 2016 graduate of the University of North Carolina’s School of the Arts, according to the Winston-Salem Journal. “UNCSA really helped me understand that each character I play is not just an archetype, but a three-dimensional human being,” he told the newspaper in 2018.
He also said he was fortunate to work with fellow UNCSA alums in his screen career thus far. “I worked on the film Halloween with [director] David Gordon Green, [screenwriter] Danny McBride, [screenwriter] Jeff Fradley, and slew of other alums who were on the crew as well,” he said. “Almost half of the projects I’ve done since graduating have had School of the Arts alumni involved.”
One of Dylan Arnold’s parents is a creative powerhouse, too.
Dylan’s mother, Laurie B. Arnold, is a writer and video game designer. On her website, Laurie says that she wrote and designed at least 50 interactive computer games.
“The games featured original characters such as Putt-Putt and Fatty Bear for Humongous Entertainment, and Huggly for Scholastic; plus many characters who you probably know and may even love as much as I do — Madeline, Little Bear, Harry Potter, The Little Mermaid, Clifford, SpongeBob, and Mr. Potato Head — and lots of others that, frankly, I’ve lost track of.”
Laurie wrote three picture books around that Putt-Putt character, and she penned the Hello There trilogy of children’s books: Hello There, We’ve Been Waiting for You!, Hello There, Do You Still Know Me?, and Hello There, I’m Coming Home! She’s also a screenwriter who wrote for the PBS show Dragon Tales. “For years, my boys thought I was the ‘cool mom’ until they finally outgrew my games and TV shows,” she says on her site.