Finn Wolfhard is more than just a former child actor from Stranger Things. He’s also a talented musician.

The multi-hyphenate star, who is hosting Saturday Night Live on January 17, appeared on The Tonight Show in December to talk about the end of the massively popular sci-fi series.In addition to reflecting on 10 years of Stranger Things, he showed off his other passion by performing one of the singles from his 2025 debut album Happy Birthday.

Rocking out to “Trailers after dark,” Wolfhard seems like a natural on stage. In his interview with Jimmy Fallon, he revealed that he’s had a love and reverence for music since he was a toddler.

“My mom got me a guitar when I was 4, but it’s funny,” he said. “It’s really nice that she did that, but what 4-year-old is…some 4-year-olds rip on guitar, I don’t know. I just stared at it for like four years and didn’t touch it. I would brag about it. I would go into school and be like, ‘I play guitar.'”

What is Finn Wolfhard’s “Trailers after dark” about?

“Trailers after dark” was inspired by a TV channel in the actor’s native Canada that played only movie trailers.

“I don’t know why that was a channel,” Wolfhard said. “That was a big thing. I would watch that with my family, and the inspiration came from that.”

Wolfhard “really didn’t like the song” until he started recording it.

“It was in a folder for demos, and I kind of skipped past it,” he said. “My friend Kai, who was producing it, was like, ‘What was that one?…Let’s listen to it.’ And then I saw it through his eyes, and he added some things that really elevated it and it became one of my favorite songs on the album.”

In addition to returning Season 50 performers including Ashley Padilla, James Austin Johnson, and longest-running cast member Kenan Thompson, the show welcomed five new Featured Players for Season 51 in October 2025: Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Ben Marshall, Kam Patterson, and Veronika Slowikowska.

The season’s Hosts have included a mix of returning fan favorites like Amy Poehler and Melissa McCarthy as well as first-timers like former Sabrina Carpenter in a double-duty turn and actor Josh O’Connor. Stream sketches from every single episode of SNL on Peacock anytime.

Finn Wolfhard is the first Stranger Things kid to host Saturday Night Live

Hawkins grown-ups David Harbour and Winona Ryder have previously hosted SNL, but Wolfhard is the first of the show’s younger generation to host. He is following his costars’ footsteps in other ways, however. Joe Keery, Maya Hawke, Jamie Campbell Bower, and Sadie Sink all have music careers, and Hawke has previously performed “Missing Out” from her third studio album, Chaos Angel, on The Tonight Show.