Who is Mia Goth, the woman Shia LaBeouf calls his 'wife'

Shia LaBeouf is one of today’s more eclectic performers. On the one hand, the 37-year-old from Los Angeles has starred in blockbusters like “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” (2010), “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” (2008) and multiple “Transformers” films.

But he’s also regularly appeared in music videos for artists like Sia and Sigur Rós, written graphic novels, and co-starred in David Mamet’s play “Henry Johnson” (2023). He’s also made headlines with his substance abuse challenges and dating life — most especially with Mia Goth, 30, whom he is believed to have married in 2016.

“She saved my f------ life,” he revealed on the “Real Ones with Jon Bernthal” podcast in 2022. “She was present for me at a time when I didn’t deserve to have nobody in my life, especially her. She gave me hope when I was really running on fumes.”

So just who is Mia Goth, you may ask? Well, she’s a star all on her own, having shifted from modeling to becoming a modern scream queen in experimental horror movies. She’s also an Independent Spirit Award nominee, and mom to her and LaBeouf’s daughter, Isabel. Read on for everything we know about Mia Goth.

Mia had a very international childhood

Born Mia Gypsy Mello Da Silva Goth (after her grandmother, Brazilian actress Maria Gladys) in 1993 in Guy’s Hospital in London, Goth moved to Brazil when she was just a few weeks old so her mother Rachel — who was only 20 — could get help from her family.

“I moved to Brazil when I was little,” she told Screen Daily in 2014. “My grandmother (Gladys) is an actress over there and she would take me on sets, so that’s where it all started. I then went to Canada — when I was in year five, I was in seven different schools — and it was only when I was 12 that I settled down in London.”

“We tried to live with my dad (Eric) and it was a disaster, not good at all,” she told iNews in 2018.

Attending so many schools, she added, helped her learn to act, Goth revealed. “Some of the schools I wouldn’t fit in and I would be bullied. As a result, you try to fit your character to the group so you start adopting different ways of being. At one point I became a huge liar, as I knew I would never be anywhere for long. I would say my dad is a brain surgeon or my mum is a chef.”

Eventually, she and her mother returned to southeast London so she could attend secondary school.

Goth was ‘obsessed’ with Amy Winehouse as a teen

As she revealed to Another magazine in 2017, Goth and her friends were “totally obsessed” with singer Amy Winehouse as a teen. They would sometimes spend their Friday night hanging outside the singer’s home — and occasionally more.

“I would camp outside her house every weekend hoping to meet her,” she said. “One time I flicked through her letterbox — yeah I was a bit creepy — I was with my friend, and we were like, ‘Aw, look she’s got a little kitten’, then, ‘Aw, she’s got another one’, and then one by one all these cats came out and there must have been 15 kittens that appeared…. All my other friends thought I was a freak. It was our Friday night out and actually quite innocent.”

Goth was still a schoolgirl when she began modeling and acting

While at the Underage Festival in London — a music festival — Goth was discovered by photographer Gemma Booth and quickly signed to Storm Model Management, according to Screen Daily. She was either 13 or 14, depending on various reports — and by 15, she had an acting agent.

Having finished school at 18, she landed a plum role in Lars von Trier’s graphic, highly sexual “Nymphomaniac Vol. II” (2013), appearing alongside Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Dafoe — and future partner LaBeouf. This, despite never having had an acting lesson before, she told Another Magazine.

“I think I was very naïve back then with my knowledge of film as a whole,” she told the publication. “Of course, I knew who Lars (von Trier) was and I had watched his films, but I didn’t know what he had achieved as a director, and I think that is what saved me, being too aware of it would have been to my detriment.”

That same year, LaBeouf also directed Goth in Future Unlimited’s “Haunted Love” video, and more roles followed soon after, from “The Survivalist” (2015) to “Everest” (2015) and “Suspiria” (2018), a role that would set the stage for the experimental horror films of her career to come.

LaBeouf and Goth (possibly) married in Las Vegas

The couple had their ups and downs over the years. In 2015 the two were caught on video in an argument in Germany, Entertainment Tonight reported alongside a copy of the video. TODAY was not able to independently verify this video.

The next year, the two seemingly reunited and headed to Las Vegas.

Goth and LaBeouf were reported to have married in Sin City on October 10, 2016, in a ceremony that was live-streamed, People reported at the time. Two days later, however, county officials said the two weren’t legally married and instead had a commitment ceremony.

“Our records show no marriage license for Shia LaBeouf & Mia Goth. A commitment ceremony was performed,” Clark County’s official then-Twitter account posted on Oct. 12, 2016.

Then, on Oct. 18, 2016, LaBeouf said in an interview on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” that he and Goth had gotten married but hadn’t realized the ceremony was being sent out over the internet.

“We get home and it’s like, ‘Whoa, hey, listen something changed,’” he told DeGeneres. “I called them up and they said, ‘Somebody pressed the wrong button that sends the video to TMZ.’”

He added, “Part of the package, the King Tut package, you get a live stream for free.”

TODAY.com has not been able to confirm the veracity of their reported Las Vegas marriage or any other marriage between the two. LaBeouf and Goth’s teams did not respond to TODAY.com’s multiple requests for comment in January and February 2024 on their marital status, past or present. As of Feb. 26, 2024, there was no record of a marriage in Clark County, Nevada, under Goth and LaBeouf’s names.

LaBeouf and Goth reportedly file for divorce

After four years together in September 2018, a rep told People magazine that they’d filed for divorce. “The separation is amicable and all details pertaining to the divorce proceedings will remain private,” the rep said in a statement.

In 2021, Goth and LaBeouf seemed to reconcile during the pandemic. The two were spotted at Disneyland walking arm in arm, wrote Vanity Fair. They also started wearing their wedding bands again, People reported.

LaBeouf referred to Goth as his “wife” in an August 2022 interview with Bishop Robert Barron.

That same month, LaBeouf spoke to Jon Bernthal on his “Real Ones” podcast and confirmed that he and Goth had gotten back together. He explained that they’d been estranged for two years and reconnected while he was staying at a rehab center in Utah when Goth showed up for him during a family Zoom call.

“Mia (Goth) is on the screen. And you know (I) don’t deserve that kind of s--- … I put her through years and years of f---ing nonsense,” he told Bernthal, emotional. “She’s like a f---ing angel…she saved my f--- life.

In the same interview, LaBeouf told Bernthal that he and Goth had “been in love for a long time” but that he “didn’t really know what love was until all the s--- hit the fan and she was still around.” He was seemingly referring to his former partner, FKA Twig’s abuse allegations. The artist sued LaBeouf for sexual battery, assault and “relentless abuse,” which he has denied. The trial in that case is set for October 2024.

Goth has a baby with LaBeouf named Isabel

Goth’s pregnancy was confirmed by photos in February 2022, according to People, and the couple was seen in April walking with a stroller in Pasadena, California, according to People. The proud papa confirmed their baby’s name, Isabel, in a letter written to director Olivia Wilde (whose film, “Don’t Worry Darling,” he’d departed), and published in Variety.

“I have a little girl, Isabel; she is five months old and just beginning to develop the last half of her laugh; it’s AMAZING,” he wrote. “Mia, my wife & I have found each other again & are journeying toward a healthy family with love and mutual respect.”

In his Aug. 2022 interview with Bernthal, LaBeouf said his daughter is “the most dynamic spark of life and most magical…it’s a game changer.”

He added that his daughter was helping him to turn over a new leaf.

“(Isabel) is testing me and she’s forcing me to give up on me,” he said. “I’m never going to be the dude I was…it’s almost like having the ultimate parole officer.”

Goth’s role in ‘Pearl’ earns her critical buzz and an award nomination

Before reuniting with LaBeouf, Goth had continued to make indie films — often with a horror bent, like 2022’s “Pearl” (which she co-wrote with director Ti West) and “X.”

In April 2022, she told RueMorgue.com that she would endure long days on set in the makeup chair for the role of Pearl, an elderly woman.

“ It was a good 10 hours in the makeup chair, and then I’d go and do a 12-hour day on set,” she told the outlet, adding that the makeup artist would stay with her to touch up her prosthetics. “But ultimately, I realized that I just needed to harness that energy and everything that was happening, and however tired I might have felt on set, it actually all informed Pearl… It was difficult, but the hard work actually helped the performance.”

Goth’s nine-minute monologue in “Pearl” led Variety to declare she deserved Oscar attention; in the end, she was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for the part.

Goth’s now the ‘most interesting actor working’ according to Rolling Stone

Throughout 2023, Goth’s performances continue to draw attention and good buzz. In “Infinity Pool,” Rolling Stone declared that there was an excellent “case for her being the single most interesting actor working in genre movies at the moment.”

And Goth has a bright future ahead: She’ll reprise one of her characters from the “X”/“Pearl” series of films in “MaXXXine,” and is set to appear in Guillermo Del Toro’s “Frankenstein” and Marvel Studio’s update of “Blade.”

“All my characters are me, turned up or turned down,” Goth told Vanity Fair in 2023. “It’s all me exploring different facets of myself.”

This article was originally published on TODAY.com