Elliot Page
Elliot Page, born Ellen Philpotts-Page on February 21, 1987, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, is a prominent actor, director, producer, and social activist known for his significant contributions to film and television. Page gained early recognition in Canadian television before achieving international fame with his role in the 2007 film "Juno," for which he received multiple award nominations, including an Oscar nod. Throughout his career, he has engaged in diverse projects, including major films like "Inception" and the Netflix series "The Umbrella Academy," in which he also portrayed a transitioning character.
Page is also recognized for his advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights and representation in the entertainment industry. In 2014, he publicly came out as gay, and in 2020, he announced his identity as a transgender man, adopting the name Elliot. He continues to be an influential figure, having been featured on the cover of Time magazine and named one of the world's most influential people in 2024. In addition to his acting career, Page is active in various social and environmental causes, reflecting his commitment to activism. His memoir, "Pageboy," released in 2023, further explores his experiences and insights.
Elliot Page
Actor, director, and producer
- Born: February 21, 1987
- Place of Birth: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Formerly known as: Ellen Philpotts-Page
Education: Vaughan Road Academy
Significance: Elliot Page is an award-winning television and movie actor, director, producer, and social activist.
Background
Elliot Page was born Ellen Philpotts-Page on February 21, 1987, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. His mother, Martha Philpotts, is a teacher. His father, Dennis Page, is a graphic designer. The couple divorced when Page was young, and after his mother remarried, he gained two older stepsiblings. When he was growing up, he enjoyed climbing trees and playing with action figures.
Page was interested in acting from an early age. He attended the Neptune Theatre School in Halifax, which was famous for its drama classes. When he was ten, he appeared in a version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as Charlie Bucket. He continued his education as his acting career began. He attended Queen Elizabeth High School and graduated from the Shambhala School, a Buddhist school, in 2005. He moved to Toronto and spent two years studying in the Interact Program at Vaughan Road Academy. His roommates when he lived in New York nicknamed him "the tiny Canadian."
Career in Entertainment
In 1997, Page was discovered at the age of ten by the actor John Dunsworth, who was visiting his school during the filming of the Canadian television series Pit Pony. He won his first on-screen role on that show playing Maggie McLean. He was nominated for both the Canadian Gemini and Young Artist awards for his work.
Page went on to appear in other acclaimed shows on Canadian television, such as Trailer Park Boys, in 2001 and 2002 and ReGenesis in 2004. He won a Gemini Award for the role of Lilith in ReGenesis.
In 2002, Page starred in the short film The Wet Season and in the award-winning Marion Bridge. He has said that it was during the filming of Marion Bridge that he realized that acting is what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.
Page returned to Canadian television to appear in Touch & Go in 2003 before moving into television in the United States. He was cast in two American-produced television movies: Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story (2003) and Going for Broke (2003), which starred Delta Burke. Also in 2003, he appeared in a Canadian film comedy, Love That Boy.
Page demonstrated his range in 2004 when he appeared in the gritty Mouth to Mouth. Then followed two more movies: the light comedy I Downloaded a Ghost and the dark comedy Wilby Wonderful.
He won an Austin Film Critics Award for his performance as the lead in David Shade’s Hard Candy in 2005. Brett Ratner, director of 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand, had to personally talk him into joining the cast to play the character Kitty Pryde, the mutant who can walk through walls. In 2007, he appeared in The Tracey Fragments and An American Crime. The role that would make him truly famous was another 2007 film, Jason Reitman’s Juno, an offbeat comedy about a teenager who unexpectedly finds herself pregnant. He was nominated for the Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and SAG Awards, and he won the Independent Spirit Award for that role.
Page hosted Saturday Night Live on March 1, 2008. In a parody of the show Hannah Montana, he voiced a character called Alaska Nebraska in an episode of The Simpsons on May 3, 2009.
Page then appeared in a steady stream of movies. He appeared in Drew Barrymore’s 2009 directorial debut, Whip It, and also in Christopher Nolan’s 2010 hit Inception. Later in 2010, he appeared in both the independent film Peacock and the dark comedy Super. He appeared in the 2012 Woody Allen comedy To Rome with Love. He was one of the stars in the 2013 thriller The East and also showed up on-screen in Touchy Feely. Page again played Kitty Pryde in 2014 in X-Men: Days of Future Past. Page also added his voice to and donned a motion capture suit to appear in the 2013 video game Beyond Two Souls and portrayed Han Solo at a staged reading of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back in 2014.
Page starred in a number of movies in the late 2010s, including the science-fiction thriller Into the Forest (2015), the biographical drama Freeheld (2015), the romantic comedy Tallulah (2016), and the science-fiction films The Cured (2017) and Flatliners (2017). In 2019, Page starred in two Netflix original series: The Umbrella Academy, about a group of superheroes who reunite after their adoptive father dies, and Tales of the City, which follows a middle-aged woman who returns home to San Francisco to face the life she left in pursuit of her career. The former lasted four seasons before ending in 2024.
Also in 2019, Page and Ian Daniels directed and cohosted the documentary There's Something in the Water about environmental racism; he also served as an executive producer for the film. It premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, where it was nominated for Best Canadian Feature Film.
In 2023, Page released his first memoir, Pageboy, which became a New York Times bestseller. That same year, he starred in Close to You, an independent drama film about a transgender man who travels back home to visit his family, who he has not seen since his transition four years earlier. The film premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.
Impact
Page quickly became one of the best and most sought-after actors of his generation. Despite the large number of movies that he made in a short time, he is very selective of what roles he will accept.
He has become a role model and spokesperson for issues regarding how Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Queer (LGBTQ) actors are treated in the movie industry. In 2021, Page became the first transgender man to be featured on the cover of Time. In the third season of The Umbrella Academy, which premiered in 2022, his character also transitioned. In 2024, Time named Page in the magazine's list of the one hundred most influential people in the world.
Personal Life
Page identifies as a vegan, an atheist, and a pro-abortion rights feminist. He studied permaculture at an ecovillage outside Eugene, Oregon. He has been active in political causes, such as appearing in online ads for the US Campaign for Burma in 2008. He was also the narrator of the 2009 documentary on colony collapse disorder, Vanishing of the Bees, directed by Maryam Henein.
On Valentine’s Day in 2014, while speaking at a Human Rights Campaign event in Las Vegas called Time to Thrive, Page came out publicly as gay; he had already told his parents that he was gay at age nineteen. Several years later, in December 2020, Page shared his nonbinary gender identity and chosen name through a social media post.
He married dancer and choreographer Emma Portner in 2018. The pair separated in 2020 and divorced in 2021.
Bibliography
Alioff, Maurie. "Elliot Page." The Canadian Encyclopedia, 1 Dec. 2020, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/elliot-page. Accessed 25 Jan. 2023.
Chua, Gina. "Elliot Page, from Shame to Self-Acceptance, in Hollywood’s Glare." Review of Pageboy, by Elliot Page. The New York Times, 6 June 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/06/06/books/review/review-elliot-page-pageboy.html. Accessed 22 Apr. 2024.
"Elliot Page." IMDb, 2023, www.imdb.com/name/nm0680983. Accessed 25 Jan. 2023.
Page, Elliot. "The Euphoria of Elliot Page." Esquire, 1 June 2022, www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a40011366/elliot-page-umbrella-academy-euphoria/. Accessed 25 Jan. 2023.
Page, Elliot, and Dominic Savage. "Elliot Page on How Making Close to You Reignited His Love for Acting: ‘It Was Definitely Something I Would Not Have Been Able to Do Pre-Transition’." Interview by Alex Ritman. Variety, 13 Mar. 2024, variety.com/2024/film/global/elliot-page-close-to-you-dominic-savage-love-for-acting-1235939509/. Accessed 22 Apr. 2024.
Salam, Maya. “Elliot Page, Oscar-Nominated ‘Juno’ Star, Announces He Is Transgender.” The New York Times, 1 Dec. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/12/01/movies/elliot-page-transgender-juno.html. Accessed 1 Dec. 2020.
Steinmetz, Katy. "Elliot Page is Ready for This Moment." Time, 16 Mar. 2021, time.com/5947032/elliot-page/. Accessed 2 Apr. 2021.