I am Elliot Burns (he/him), 16, a rising junior in high school and an aspiring actor with dreams that can reach the sky. I have been doing theater since I was 5 years old and singing pretty much since I knew how to talk. I started in various children's camps and courses locally when I was too little to be on the "big stage" and transitioned to that very "big stage" when I was around the age of 8 and continued camps along with that too. In school, I have participated in every single school year production I could, and have acted in all but one (which I did tech for). My most recent work has been playing two different roles (last year, 2021-22) in my high school's theater program: Charles Wallace in A Wrinkle in Time and Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family. In the fall play of 2022, I decided to give tech a spin and helped out with the sound.Â
Theater has been my passion since I can remember. My parents and community have been very supportive and encouraging, and have created a positive environment in which I can learn, make mistakes, grow, and thrive.
One of my favorite places in the whole entire world is Disneyland. My family and I have an endless love of Disney magic and Disneyland. We love to go there whenever we get the chance and it's truly a place where I can let go, have fun, and be surrounded by the magic.
As a trans youth, I am often hit with tests of identity, maturity, and responsibility. I am responsible for the way that I am shown to the world and responsible for how I handle that. My acknowledgement of this responsibility to myself has helped me better understand how the world views me and has helped me gain confidence in correcting others and standing up to transphobia/homophobia. Being able to find my identity through a time of identity confusion was a bit of a shock. The teenage years are tender and hormonal and wacky and being able to be sure of one thing in my life, and make a difference, has been tremendously helpful to my mental health and my well being.