Brett Gelman: the actor who plays Murray Bauman in Stranger Things
Actors · Brett Gelman · Murray Bauman
Brett Gelman arrived in season 2 for a few scenes: a conspiracy journalist, hired by Barb's parents, who lives in a barricaded warehouse. Four seasons later, Murray Bauman is the comic of the show, the Russians' translator and Joyce's traveling companion. Portrait.
The essentials
- Born: October 6, 1976, Highland Park, Illinois
- Role: Murray Bauman, seasons 2 to 5
- Elsewhere: Fleabag (Martin), Love, Lemon, Eagleheart
- The character: paranoid journalist, Russian translator, karateka
Contents
Brett Gelman, a comic from the alternative scene
Brett Gelman comes from stage comedy: trained at the University of North Carolina, he cuts his teeth in New York in alternative shows and sketches, before shooting for cable television. He is Martin, Fleabag's unbearable brother-in-law, a role that earns him international recognition, and a regular in Judd Apatow's comedies, including the series Love.
He joins Season 2 in 2017. Murray Bauman is written as a two-episode character: a former journalist turned private investigator, who understood before anyone else what happened in Hawkins, and whom nobody listens to.
The Hopper T-shirt, the one Murray mocks.
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Murray, the madman who is right
Murray lives in an Illinois warehouse turned bunker, drinks vodka, and from season 2 on figures out that Nancy and Jonathan are in love without admitting it. In season 3, he translates for Alexei, the Russian scientist kidnapped by Hopper and Joyce, and grows attached to him through the fair. In season 4, he goes with Joyce as far as Kamchatka, reveals karate skills and turns Yuri, the smuggler.
Brett Gelman plays all of that with sketch energy, and the show uses him as a pressure valve: Murray says what the others do not dare, often at the worst moment.
The karateSeason 4 reveals that Murray has a black belt in karate, which he brags about before Yuri humiliates him.
Murray, season by season
| Season | What Murray lives through |
|---|---|
| 2 | Investigates for Barb's parents, pushes Nancy and Jonathan to talk |
| 3 | Translates for Alexei, takes him to the fair, goes down under Starcourt with Hopper and Joyce |
| 4 | Goes to Russia with Joyce, fights with Yuri, frees Hopper |
| 5 | Back in Hawkins with the others |
Murray and Alexei: the season 3 duo
Murray's best is in Season 3: locked in his bunker with a Russian scientist who does not speak English, a police chief who does not speak Russian, and an exhausted mother, he translates, complains, and ends up watching cartoons on the couch with Alexei. The latter's death, at the fair, is the only moment the character stops joking, and Brett Gelman plays it in silence, which surprised viewers used to his outbursts.
Elsewhere
| Year | Project | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2011-2014 | Eagleheart | Brett Mobley |
| 2016-2018 | Love | Dr. Greg Colter |
| 2017 | Lemon | Isaac, lead role |
| 2016-2019 | Fleabag | Martin |
| 2015 | Another Period | Hamish |
| 2018 | Room for Rent | Lead role |
Lemon, a dark comedy he co-wrote, and Fleabag remain his calling cards outside the show. He keeps doing stand-up comedy and television roles, often unpleasant characters he makes strangely endearing.
Markers
| Year | Step |
|---|---|
| 1976 | Birth in Illinois |
| 2011 | Eagleheart |
| 2016 | Fleabag, Love |
| 2017 | Murray's casting; season 2 |
| 2019 | Season 3: Alexei |
| 2022 | Season 4: Russia |
| 2025 | End of the show |
The Hopper figure, his bunker partner.
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What you know less about him
Brett Gelman grew up in Highland Park, in the Chicago suburbs, the son of a photo salesman, and trained in classical theater at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Settled in New York with a schoolmate, he was a regular at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, in a duo and a sketch group, and long lived off a New York lottery commercial. He shot a one-man show, 1,000 Cats.
On television, he was Chris Elliott's sidekick in Eagleheart, Mr. K in Go On with Matthew Perry, and he appeared in the last episode of Mad Men in 2015. In 2016, he left the Cartoon Network and Adult Swim channels denouncing their treatment of women employees and the airing of a controversial show.
Murray in 1987: the grenade
In the last season, Murray is the group's smuggler: he brings into Hawkins, under quarantine, the food, the Turnbow-trap gear, and the information on the army's operations. He is the one who announces, in the first episode, that the military is preparing a large operation in the Upside Down, which triggers Hopper's crawl. He evacuates three children in his truck during the raid, and drives the whole group into the Upside Down through the military base in episode 7.
His big moment is in the finale: Dr. Kay's helicopter loads the emitter that binds Eleven's powers, and Murray destroys it with a grenade. He then arms the bomb with Hopper. Brett Gelman played Murray from season 2 through the last chapter, gone from a two-episode character to a full member of the main cast.
Five Murray scenes to rewatch
-
The bunker, 1984
He gets Nancy and Jonathan drinking, and tells them what they do not dare tell each other.
-
Alexei, 1985
Translation, vodka and cartoons on the couch, until the fair.
-
Yuri, 1986
Karate, the black belt, and the humiliation in Alaska.
-
The flamethrower, 1986
In the Russian prison, he burns the particles of the Upside Down and weakens Vecna at a distance.
-
The grenade, 1987
The army helicopter explodes; Eleven gets her powers back.
Murray and Joyce: the season 4 duo
After Alexei, the show gave Murray another partner: Joyce. In 1986, they leave together for Alaska, then Kamchatka, to get Hopper back, with Yuri the smuggler as guide and opponent. Murray reveals his black belt there, gets humiliated, then turns Yuri to their cause; he flies a plane, wields a flamethrower in the Russian prison, and burns the Upside Down particles that weaken Vecna at a distance.
Brett Gelman and Winona Ryder form an unexpected comic duo, she in the urgency, he in the commentary. It is that pair that season 5 finds again in the tunnels, when Murray moves the group's gear under the quarantine and Joyce leads the children's evacuation. The two-episode character of 1984 finishes the show in the front row.
The Hawkins keychain, for the next trip to Russia.
In the shopJim Hopper Hawaiian shirt49,90 €See the product
TakeawayBorn in 1976, a stand-up comic revealed by Fleabag and Love. Murray Bauman since Season 2, the journalist who is right. Alexei's translator, karateka and Joyce's traveling companion. Elsewhere: Lemon, Eagleheart, The Crowded Room.
Frequently asked questions
Who plays Murray in Stranger Things?
Brett Gelman, American actor and comic born in 1976, from season 2 on.
Is Brett Gelman in Fleabag?
Yes, he plays Martin, the heroine's brother-in-law, in both seasons.
Does Murray really speak Russian?
The character, yes; the actor learned his lines in Russian for the show.
Is Murray in season 5?
Yes, he is among the characters back in Hawkins for the last season.
Is Murray a main character?
He became a series regular starting in Season 4, after two seasons as a recurring character.
What does Murray do in the show's finale?
He grenades the helicopter that is carrying the transmitter holding Eleven's powers down, then arms with Hopper the bomb that destroys the Upside Down.
Does Murray really fly a plane in the show?
Yes, in season 4, he takes the controls of Yuri's plane over Russia, after obtaining the smuggler's cooperation.