What Natalia Dyer Was Doing When She Landed Her Stranger Things Role

As Natalia Dyer detailed in that interview, even after making her big screen debut at 14 in "Hannah Montana: The Movie," she still wasn't convinced acting would be her meal ticket. "Acting always felt really unpredictable and, financially, I figured I'd have a job-job and do it on the side." As such, Dyer was working towards a degree from New York University prior to landing the role of Nancy Wheeler. She was also taking that "on the side" approach to acting, fitting auditions in between classes ... until her "Stranger Things" test proved a legit game-changer.

Once the series got the official greenlight, Dyer promptly left her coed days behind. "I was midway through college at NYU when "Stranger Things" happened. It was just like any other audition — I knew Winona Ryder was in it and that it was for Netflix, which at the time obviously wasn't what it is now. I remember I had an emotional day, and I thought I really messed up the audition. Then I got a callback, and I didn't feel great about that either — it was only when I got to the screen test that I figured I must have been doing something right. Ultimately, I put a pause on my education to go film it."

Don't feel too bad about Natalia Dyer pausing her studies at NYU, by the way, as she was actually studying acting at the time, and things have obviously worked out for her on that front. In any case, Dyer claims she may one day return to complete her studies, "Sometimes I think about going back to school, but for now I'm getting a different education." At least that education will continue to involve alternate dimensions, monstrous demogorgons, and all manner of upside down things in between.