Who is Linnea Berthelsen? Meet the actor who plays Kali in Stranger Things

Linnea Berthelsen is the actor who plays Kali Prasad, also known as Eight, in Stranger Things, and many viewers looking her up are trying to connect her real-life story to Kali’s place in the Hawkins Lab mythology. If you are searching because Kali returns later in the series, or because you want a clean recap of what she meant for Eleven, the short version is this. Kali is one of the lab kids who escaped, and her ability is built around perception, not force.

Linnea Berthelsen first appears in season 2, in The Lost Sister, where Kali’s worldview tests how far Eleven will go with her power. Away from Stranger Things, Linnea Berthelsen is a Danish actress who was born in London and raised in Denmark, and she trained in England before building a screen career that includes Devs.

Kali in Stranger Things: What Linnea Berthelsen’s character does, and why her episode matters?

In Stranger Things, Linnea Berthelsen plays Kali Prasad, the test subject known as 008, who is tied directly to Eleven’s origin story. Like Eleven, Kali is a Hawkins Lab survivor, but her power is different. Kali can manipulate what people see, which lets her misdirect, frighten, and control opponents without physically moving them. That distinction is why Kali’s story often gets discussed as a fork in the road for Eleven, not just a side quest.

Linnea Berthelsen’s season 2 arc is centered on The Lost Sister. Eleven finds Kali in Chicago, where she is living with a small crew of outsiders and running targeted revenge missions. Kali pushes Eleven to stop thinking like a kid who needs protection and start thinking like someone who decides what justice looks like.

The episode matters because it forces Eleven to test anger as a fuel source, then decide whether vengeance is the same thing as strength. The story ends with Eleven leaving, while Kali continues forward with her group, which is why fans kept treating Kali as unfinished business for years.

Linnea Berthelsen has also framed Kali as a person first, not a powers package. As per a W Magazine report dated November 3, 2017, Linnea Berthelsen said,

“To be honest, I didn’t focus on her having super powers because Kali is really human.”

In that same conversation, she described Kali as someone shaped by trauma and isolation after leaving the lab, which helps explain why Kali reads tougher and more guarded than Eleven in their scenes together.

When Stranger Things brings Kali back later, the show leans into the idea that Kali is no longer the same person viewers met in season 2. As per an Entertainment Weekly report dated December 25, 2025, Linnea Berthelsen said,

“I started from scratch with the character, given the circumstances of what she’s going through.”

She added,

"It's a gear shift. It's a whole different person. What happens to people when they go through something that's quite traumatic and different, you can change"

That return also adds context about what happened to Kali after she was pulled back into the world of experiments, making her less of a mystery cameo and more of a lived-in survivor with scars that show up in how she talks to Eleven and what she asks of her.

Who is Linnea Berthelsen? Age, nationality, family background, and acting training

Linnea Berthelsen was born July 13, 1993, in London, and she is Danish. Linnea Berthelsen has shared that she was adopted and raised in Kalundborg, Denmark, and she has kept details about her adoptive parents largely private in public biographies. As per IMDb, Linnea Berthelsen’s listed height is 5′ 0¼, which is 1.53 m.

Linnea Berthelsen moved to England in 2014 to study at East 15 Acting School in Essex, which is one reason her work often reads as both Danish and United Kingdom-based in coverage. She has also described the practical challenge of working in a second language while acting.

Linnea Berthelsen’s movies and TV shows: what she has done outside Stranger Things

After Stranger Things made Linnea Berthelsen a familiar face, she continued working in television and film, often in genre-leaning projects. One of her best-known roles outside Stranger Things is Jen in Devs, the Alex Garland miniseries released in 2020, where she plays a close coworker in a story built around tech power and determinism.

Linnea Berthelsen’s other credits include the series The Desert, where she appears as Nura, along with earlier screen work that includes the short film Teenland and additional film titles listed in her filmography, such as Natskygge and Sláinte.

Stay tuned for more updates.