Tragic Details About Euphoria Star Hunter Schafer's Life

"Euphoria" star Hunter Schafer is on a path to Hollywood superstardom, with her groundbreaking and eye-catching role in the aforementioned HBO drama, her powerful and memorable turns in the 2024's "Cuckoo" and "Kinds of Kindness," and her forthcoming role in the TV series "Blade Runner 2099." However, despite her thriving career, famous friends, and supportive fans, the 26-year-old actress has had numerous roadblocks and personal challenges that she's had to navigate over the course of her young life.

Things have seemingly gotten more difficult for Schafer since the start of Donald Trump's administration. The actress is a trans woman, and in February 2025, she took to social media to reveal that the new passport she recently received had marked her gender as "M" for male. This is because of Trump's executive order that the US government only recognizes two sexes, male and female, and that official government documents will adhere to the sex marked on people's birth certificates.

"I'm not making this post to fear-monger, or to create drama, or receive consolation, I don't need it. But I do think it's worth posting to sort of note the reality of the situation and that it is actually happening," Schafer said in her video (via X, formerly known as Twitter). "And I was shocked. I was shocked. ... I also want to say, I don't give a f**k that they put an 'M' on my passport. It doesn't change really anything about me or my transness, however it does make life a little harder." This sort of difficulty is tragically something Schafer has faced throughout her life.

For Hunter Schafer, dealing with depression is something she's had to face from an incredibly young age. Her own insecurity and introverted nature made it difficult to make friends, which in turn meant she spent more time alone and in her own thoughts. As she explained in an interview with AnOther Magazine in September 2023, depression was a major factor in her decision to transition.

"I was really starting to fade when I was approaching puberty," Schafer shared with the publication. "And I think it became obvious to the people around me. Thankfully that was enough to get the help I needed to start transitioning. Depression has been something I've wrestled with. It never really goes away. You just figure out how to live with it, live a life with it. And I'm on meds now, which are great."

Schafer also explained, "I used to deal really horribly with depression and stuff, and I think a lot of it came from being too inside my head," but throwing herself into her work and her career has allowed her to be more present, more extroverted, and given her the opportunity to escape the lonely confines of her own mind and explore the world of possibilities through acting and collaboration.

In "Euphoria," Schafer stars as Jules, a trans woman in high school who sparks an on-and-off relationship with Rue — played by Zendaya, whom Schafer is close friends with off-screen. As part of her storyline, Schafer found herself having to confront memories of her own transition process that were particularly difficult for her at the time.

"Part of surviving [that] experience was just, like, getting through s***. Letting it rest, and not addressing it. I think that's what I had been [doing] up to that point: just going and going, fighting to be on the other side of my transition," Schafer told V Magazine in February 2020. The actress said playing Jules required digging into her past and continued, "That happened throughout the entire season: As we worked through different scenes, I'd have to remember a new detail, to dig up an artifact from within myself, and hold onto that moment for the scene."

While the experience was challenging, Schafer also explained that aspects of it were cathartic and the connections and emotional explorations made on the show were vitally important to her. This was especially true of one episode that aired as a bridge between the first and second seasons, which focused on Jules. Schafer told i-D Magazine that she had been struggling, "Probably coming out of the worst depression I've ever had, and needing somewhere to put all of that energy," and that the show, and that episode in particular, served as a "lifeline" for her.

Hunter Schafer has usually kept her personal love life relatively private. However, in 2022, Schafer sparked relationship rumors with her "Euphoria" co-star Dominic Fike, and they were confirmed when Fike shared a photo of them kissing to his Instagram Stories. They later made their red carpet couple debut at the Vanity Fair Oscars afterparty that same year.

However, by July 2023, the pair had called it quits after more than a year of sweetly praising one another online and in interviews. Fike's reasoning for the split, although he didn't name-drop Schafer, was that he had codependent tendencies. He told Zane Lowe on Apple Music, "I'm just done being in relationships right now." That being said, Schafer told a very different story when she sat down for an episode of the "Call Her Daddy" podcast a little over a year later. She alluded to her relationship with Fike, and she said the reason they broke up was because, " ... I got cheated on for the first time."

"But that, like, fundamentally changed me as a person," Schafer later told host Alex Cooper. Per Instagram, she continued, "And it was this whole process of realizing that cheating has nothing to do with you. And it has everything to do with that person and whatever kind of pain they're in or whatever they're dealing with." Schafer also said in the interview (via USA Today), "We both recognized that this is not working, and we can't do this. We gotta go our own separate ways." Schafer had kinds words for her ex and added that their split was especially difficult, "... because we really loved each other."

The close-knit "Euphoria" cast were left heartbroken in July 2023 when co-star Angus Cloud — who played Fezco on the hit HBO teen drama — died due to an accidental drug overdose at the age of 25. The pain of the loss was felt by many of his friends and co-stars, who took to social media at the time to express their sadness at Cloud's shocking and untimely death. Hunter Schafer was particularly stunned and devastated by the tragedy, and took to Instagram to share an emotional tribute to her friend.

"[I've] been trying to figure out what to say, but idk if any combination of words can articulate all of the big feelings. for now i just wanna say: Angus was a sunshine. To have known his warmth, his light, and his love was nothing short of a gift," Schafer captioned a polaroid photo of the late actor. "I'm so grateful to have shared so many enormous fits of laughter, so many sweet moments, and the joy of getting to make something together that we loved so much."

In April 2024, Schafer broke into tears as she spoke with GQ about Cloud, and explained, "I've never had a friend that I was that close to and that was my age pass before. It's really surreal." She said she'd feel the grief at unexpected times — and even a year later the pain was strong and heartbreaking.