Elijah Velarde

Elijah Velarde began acting professionally at the age of 4. He first fell in love with the arts when he attended a children's musical theatre performance of Peter Pan with his family. Everything about the theater excited him and begged his parents to let him be in a play, so several months later he auditioned for a children's musical theatre production of "Fame on Broadway", and landed an ensemble role in several scenes, including "Les Miserables" and "Oliver". Shortly after, he caught the eye of a re-known talent manager and booked a national Spanish and English commercial for State Farm Insurance on his very first audition! He is represented by The Osbrink Agency and has done several commercials including Elmers Glue, Humana, PSA, as well as television shows "Melrose Place" and "Parenthood". In 2010 he landed the role of Young Armando, in the feature film, "Casa de Mi Padre", starring Will Ferrell, Diego Luna, Gael Garia Bernal and Efren Ramirez. Young Armando was the role of a lifetime for Elijah, as he played the younger version of Will Ferrell in the film, one of his all time favorite actors! That same year, writer and founding partner of The Film Imaginarium, William Camacho, began writing the script for The Shooting Star Salesman and wrote the role of Elijah exclusively for Elijah himself. The film went into production in 2011 and it was an incredible experience for him to work along side veteran actors Yancey Arias, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Jason Gedrick and most especially to be directed by his father, Kico Velarde. In his free time, after Elijah has completed his homework and hopefully checked it twice, he enjoys scooter riding, building with his massive Legos collection, defending his self proclaimed title as "King of Handball" on the courts, or playing Nerf gun wars with his mischievous side kick, his little sister Sophia.