Noah LaLonde is the American actor who turned a background in competitive ice hockey and Michigan independent film into one of Netflix’s most talked-about young leading roles. Born on 22 March 1998 in Macomb, Michigan, LaLonde is best known as Cole Walter, the brooding former football star at the centre of the love triangle in My Life with the Walter Boys, the coming-of-age drama that became a global streaming hit from its first season in December 2023. For many viewers, noah lalonde was a completely new name that year; within weeks, he was one of the most searched young actors on the platform.
What makes his story more interesting than a standard overnight-success profile is how much work sits underneath it. Noah LaLonde spent years playing junior hockey at a high level, studied theatre at university, left to train full-time in Detroit acting studios, and built a résumé of short films and independent features before American television noticed him. This profile covers only what is properly supportable — his verified early life, his hockey career, his screen roles in order, the Cole Walter breakthrough, and his next film — and leaves the invented net-worth figures and relationship speculation that fill weaker profiles where they belong: out.
Early Life, Hockey and the Road to Acting
Noah LaLonde was born in Macomb, Michigan, on 22 March 1998 and was raised in the Detroit metropolitan area, where sport and performance competed for his attention from childhood. He acted in elementary school plays and joined a theatrical choir programme in middle school, but hockey became the dominant pursuit of his teenage years: he played for more than a decade and a half in total, progressing through the respected Detroit HoneyBaked programme into the United States Hockey League, the top junior league in the country, with the Youngstown Phantoms and the Omaha Lancers. His biographical details are summarised on his Wikipedia page, which records both the hockey career and the acting credits that followed it.
In total, LaLonde played 93 games in the USHL, recording 34 points, and committed to play college hockey at Lake Superior State University. At Grand Valley State University he combined hockey with studying theatre, but after about a year he made the decision that defines his story: he left university to pursue acting seriously, training at studios in the Detroit area including in Royal Oak and Ferndale, and working on locally made independent productions. That willingness to walk away from a realistic sporting future for an uncertain creative one is a theme noah lalonde himself has returned to in interviews — and, as his most famous role shows, life had a sense of humour about it.
Early Screen Roles in Independent Film
LaLonde’s screen career began, as most do, in short films and small independent features made in and around Detroit. His early credits include the 2020 short The Smile I Wear, the short Toby… With an ‘I’, the 2021 feature Asbury Park, in which he played Rece, the short Help Wanted, and Summer Flings & Funerals in 2021, on which he also gained behind-the-camera experience. None of these titles was widely distributed, but collectively they gave noah lalonde the two things young actors need before bigger casting directors will look at them: footage proving he could carry scenes on camera, and experience of professional sets.
The step up came in 2022 with two very different projects. In the horror-thriller Deer Camp ’86, a period piece about a group of friends on a hunting trip that goes badly wrong, LaLonde took a main role as Wes — his first leading part in a feature with genuine genre-festival attention. The same year he appeared in American network television for the first time, playing Gael Bruneau in an episode of Criminal Minds: Evolution, the Paramount+ revival of the long-running procedural. Trivia fans enjoy the coincidence that Corey Fogelmanis, who plays his younger brother Nathan in the Walter Boys series, appeared in the same Criminal Minds storyline as his character’s younger sibling.
Cole Walter and the Breakthrough
In April 2022, noah lalonde was cast as Cole Walter in Netflix’s adaptation of Ali Novak’s novel My Life with the Walter Boys, and the role could hardly have fit an actor better. Cole is a high-school star athlete whose football future has been destroyed by injury, leaving him charming, restless and quietly lost while his family takes in Jackie, the orphaned New York teenager played by Nikki Rodriguez. LaLonde, who had lived the experience of an athlete forced to imagine a life beyond sport, brought that history directly into the performance, and critics and viewers singled out the authenticity underneath the teen-drama gloss.
The series premiered in December 2023 and became one of Netflix’s standout young-adult hits, with the Jackie–Cole–Alex love triangle driving enormous social-media discussion. A second season followed in 2025, taking Cole’s story into attempts at rebuilding — coaching, responsibility and an honest reckoning with Jackie — and the show’s continued success has kept filming in Alberta, Canada, where the Walter family ranch is realised. For noah lalonde, the effect has been transformative: from regional independent film to a globally recognised Netflix lead with a fanbase that follows every casting announcement he makes.
Acting Style and Why Casting Directors Notice Him
LaLonde’s screen presence is built on an athlete’s physical confidence combined with a deliberate stillness in emotional scenes, a combination casting directors prize in young leading men. Where many performers his age push feelings outward, he tends to underplay — a look held a beat too long, a joke used as a shield — which suits characters whose damage is internal. Playing Cole Walter across multiple seasons has also shown range within a single role, moving the character from arrogance through shame to something like maturity without losing the charisma that made audiences forgive him in the first place.
He has spoken about his motivation in simple terms: a love of storytelling and of connecting people through it — crediting film, television and theatre with carrying him through difficult periods in his own life, and hoping to do the same for audiences. That sincerity reads on screen and in interviews, and it helps explain why coverage of noah lalonde tends to be warm rather than merely curious. In an industry that manufactures personalities quickly, his public image remains unusually straightforward: a Michigan athlete who retrained, worked the small roles, and was ready when the right character arrived.
What Is Next for Noah LaLonde
The clearest sign of his changed status came in November 2025, when Deadline reported that noah lalonde would star in Guarding Stars, the film adaptation of Katherine Center’s bestselling romantic novel The Bodyguard, which entered post-production ahead of a 2026 release. A literary romance lead is a deliberate step beyond teen drama: it tests whether his audience — and his performances — travel into adult romantic comedy-drama, the genre that built durable film careers for many television breakouts before him. Trade coverage treated the casting as a graduation, and it is the project most likely to define his next phase.
Beyond that, the Walter Boys series remains his anchor, with its seasons continuing to anchor Netflix’s young-adult slate and his character at the centre of its central relationship. Sensible expectations for LaLonde’s career combine the two tracks: franchise security from streaming television, and carefully chosen film roles that widen his range one step at a time. What readers should not expect from this page is invented detail — estimates of his wealth and speculation about his private relationships circulate widely online, but they are not supported by reliable reporting, and noah lalonde keeps his personal life, appropriately, personal.
Conclusion
Noah LaLonde’s rise is a genuinely instructive show-business story precisely because it was not instant. A junior hockey career at national level, a year of university theatre, full-time training in Detroit studios, a run of shorts and independent features, a horror-film lead and a network guest spot all came before Netflix cast him as Cole Walter — the athlete-turned-actor playing an actor’s version of his own turning point, an athlete rebuilding his life after injury. Audiences responded to that authenticity, and the Walter Boys phenomenon did the rest.
With further seasons of the series and a romantic film lead in Guarding Stars ahead of him, noah lalonde has moved from discovery to established young leading man, and the interesting question now is range: how far beyond Silver Falls his choices will take him. This profile sticks to the verifiable record — the dates, the teams, the credits — because that record is good enough. Readers who enjoy our celebrity profiles may also enjoy Pogeo’s wider entertainment and sport coverage, including our guide to rugby positions.
Frequently Asked Questions
How old is Noah LaLonde?
Noah LaLonde was born on 22 March 1998 in Macomb, Michigan, which makes him 28 years old in 2026. He was 25 when My Life with the Walter Boys premiered in December 2023, playing a high-school character — a common piece of television casting that surprised some viewers. His birth date and birthplace are consistently recorded across his Wikipedia biography, television databases and contemporary reporting of his junior hockey career, so unlike many details on celebrity profile sites, his age is firmly verifiable rather than estimated.
What is Noah LaLonde famous for?
He is famous for playing Cole Walter, the injured former football star and one of two brothers at the centre of the central love triangle in Netflix’s My Life with the Walter Boys, which premiered in 2023 and continued with further seasons. Before that breakthrough he was known to smaller audiences for the horror film Deer Camp ’86 and a guest role in Criminal Minds: Evolution. In 2025 he was cast as the lead in Guarding Stars, the film adaptation of Katherine Center’s novel The Bodyguard, due for release in 2026.
Did Noah LaLonde really play hockey?
Yes — his athletic background is real and substantial, not a publicity detail. Raised in the Detroit area, he played through the HoneyBaked programme and spent two seasons in the USHL, America’s top junior league, with the Youngstown Phantoms and Omaha Lancers, recording 34 points in 93 games. He played at Grand Valley State University while studying theatre before leaving to train as an actor full-time. That history directly informs his performance as Cole Walter, an athlete whose sporting future has been taken away.
What movies and TV shows has Noah LaLonde been in?
His filmography runs from the shorts The Smile I Wear and Help Wanted and the independent features Asbury Park and Summer Flings & Funerals, through his first lead role in Deer Camp ’86 in 2022, to television appearances in Criminal Minds: Evolution and his starring role in My Life with the Walter Boys from 2023 onwards. His next film, Guarding Stars, adapted from The Bodyguard by Katherine Center, was in post-production for a 2026 release at the time of writing.
Where is Noah LaLonde from?
He is from Michigan — born in Macomb and raised in the Metro Detroit area, where he played his junior hockey and trained as an actor in Detroit, Royal Oak and Ferndale studios before his career took him further afield. He studied theatre briefly at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. His Midwestern, sporting upbringing is a consistent part of his interviews and biography, and it distinguishes his route into acting from the more typical Los Angeles or New York pathways followed by many of his contemporaries.
And if you came here straight from a Walter Boys rewatch, browse more of Pogeo’s explainers next — our complete rugby positions breakdown is a good place to start.