Gabriel LaBelle

Gabriel LaBelle (born September 2002) is a Canadian actor. He is best known for his leading role as young aspiring filmmaker Sammy Fabelman in Steven Spielberg's semi-autobiographical film The Fabelmans (2022), for which he received acclaim and won the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Young Performer. LaBelle has also appeared in the action film The Predator (2018), in an episode of the Netflix horror series Brand New Cherry Flavor (2021), and in the Showtime drama series American Gigolo (2022). Early life and education LaBelle is from Vancouver, and is the son of producer and character actor Rob LaBelle. He was raised Jewish. LaBelle began interest in acting at the age of 8 at a summer camp, playing roles in its musical productions of Footloose, Shrek The Musical and Aladdin. LaBelle made his on-screen acting debut in 2013 on an episode of the Canadian TV series Motive in a guest role, thanks to his father landing his son an agent and being a producer on the show. In 2017, he starred in the indie horror film Dead Shack, which premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival and Fantasia Film Festival. It was in 2020 that LaBelle became fully committed to acting as a career and flew to Montreal to apply for theater programs, until the COVID-19 pandemic locked down the city. He ultimately got in to Concordia University’s drama program, but had to attend classes virtually. He also wanted to pursue a career in acting in New York City, but put the plans on hold to take care of his family at home. He also deleted his social media in early 2020 for these reasons, saying that doing so made him "a better actor because you want to be focused, creative and confident, but if you have this thing that destroys your attention span and takes up time away from original thought and further indulges your need for validation, that’s my whole job. I can’t have that in my front pocket. I try to dissociate from that desire. I’ve never seen any of that as good, even before auditioning for stuff."