Elliott Hanson

Class of 2012

Drama • Musical Theater • Jazz Choir

Boston University
Film/TV

_____
For Elliott Hanson, San Marin Performing Arts opened the door to a completely different kind of teamwork. After entering high school as more of a tennis player than an actor, he discovered a community built around collaboration, creativity, and the shared goal of moving an audience.

After graduating from San Marin, Elliott attended Boston University, earning a degree from its Film & Television program in 2016. He now lives in Los Angeles, where he continues to work as an actor while also serving as a clinical case manager supporting unhoused and undocumented populations.

Career Highlights

Elliott has continued working professionally across theater, film, and commercial work. His stage credits include Parade with Huntington Theatre Company, Sunday in the Park with George at San Francisco Playhouse, and Fiorello! and 110 in the Shade with 42nd Street Moon. He also performed in a Marin Theatre Company co-production reading of The Soap Myth alongside Ed Asner. His film credits include Gabriel, which screened at the Mill Valley Film Festival, and The 50, which screened at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

His commercial work has included a Google commercial filmed aboard a flight to Las Vegas and portraying Abraham Lincoln in a Doritos commercial for a Super Bowl contest—“We lost the contest,” he notes.

After building his career in the Bay Area theater scene, Elliott joined Actors’ Equity Association and later moved to Los Angeles, where he continues to work as an actor.

“In tennis, it was my goal to ‘beat’ this other kid while parents screamed alongside the fences. On the stage, I was working as a team tasked with making audiences applaud, laugh, and occasionally cry. How beautiful is that!”

— Elliott Hanson

REFLECTIONS & ADVICE

Elliott still remembers how dramatically the performing arts changed his idea of competition and teamwork.

“In tennis, it was my goal to ‘beat’ this other kid while parents screamed alongside the fences. On the stage, I was working as a team tasked with making audiences applaud, laugh, and occasionally cry. How beautiful is that!”

That sense of community—and the friendships that came with it—has stayed with him.

One of his most formative San Marin experiences came after his freshman year, when drama teacher Linda Kislingbury invited him to join the cast of Charlie Cox Runs with Scissors. The production was selected to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2009, giving Elliott the opportunity to travel and perform alongside older, more experienced students.

“It was a particularly validating experience to be 15 years old and acting alongside the more experienced, ‘older’ 17- and 18-year-olds.”

For students hoping to continue in the performing arts, Elliott’s first piece of advice is simple: don’t “compare and despair.” In a world where social media makes it easy to measure yourself against everyone else, he encourages young artists to stay focused on their own path.

He also believes it’s important to build a life outside of your creative work.

“The arts will always find ways to break our hearts. If our self-esteem lives or dies by the result of an audition, we’re setting ourselves up for an emotional roller coaster of a career.”

And finally: show up, stay open, and be kind to the people you meet.

Elliott remembers bombing an audition and leaving convinced nothing would come of it. On his way out, the person who had checked him in approached him and invited him to audition for an entirely unrelated play she had written—simply because of their brief interaction beforehand.

“Be friendly, go outside, and things will happen.”

Once a Mustang, Always a Mustang.