Who Is Linnea Berthelsen? The Truth Behind Stranger Things Kali — Is Kali Indian?

Eight is back. Linnea Berthelsen returns as Kali Prasad in Stranger Things Season 5 for what looks like her final lap, crossing paths again with Millie Bobby Brown's Eleven. Quick refresher on who she is, who the actor actually is, and why Eight feels very different this time around.

Yes, Kali is Indian. Linnea is not.

Kali Prasad is written as an Indian character, and her name nods to the Hindu goddess Kali. Berthelsen, however, is not Indian. She was born and raised in Denmark, and there is no public indication that she has Indian heritage. A detail that has confused some fans since her Season 2 debut, but that is the setup the show went with.

Who Linnea Berthelsen is outside Hawkins

Berthelsen grew up in Denmark, then moved to London in 2014 and trained at East 15 Acting School shortly after. She started acting in her early teens, working on small productions. Her screen debut was a short film called Mirrors, followed by more shorts like Dyspno and Cape Fear, among others.

Stranger Things came calling in 2017, casting her as Kali Prasad, aka Eight, which has been her biggest role to date. She also popped up in the 2020 sci-fi mini-series Devs as Jen. Most recently, she returned to play Kali again in the final season of Stranger Things.

Rebuilding Eight for the endgame

Season 2 gave us a rebellious, wounded teen with a flair for mischief. Season 5 brings back a more grounded, more mature Eight. That shift was intentional. Berthelsen told Entertainment Weekly she essentially wiped the slate clean and rebuilt Kali from scratch to reflect everything the character has been through.

"I started from scratch with the character, given the circumstances of what she's going through. 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. So I think I allowed myself to say, 'Season 2, that persona, whatever happened is there, but I'm gonna start all over and do the prep from the beginning, see what's gonna come out naturally.' What stayed with the character was that guardedness, that way of seeing the world, the mistrust."

It tracks. If Eight was going to fold into the show's final stretch, she had to evolve. And seeing her come back to share the screen with Eleven again hits a nice full-circle note before the door closes.

Stranger Things snapshot

• Series: Stranger Things
• Seasons: 5
• Creators: The Duffer Brothers
• Production companies: 21 Laps Entertainment, Monkey Massacre Productions, Upside Down Pictures
• Main cast: Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Noah Schnapp, Caleb McLaughlin, Gaten Matarazzo
• IMDb score: 8.6/10
• Rotten Tomatoes score: 90%
• Where to watch: Netflix

How are you feeling about Kali's evolution in the final season? Did the reworked Eight land for you, or did you miss her Season 2 chaos?