Ellar Coltrane


Ellar Coltrane Kinney Salmon, known professionally as Ellar Coltrane, is an American actor and model. They are best known for their role as Mason Evans Jr. in Richard Linklater's film Boyhood, for which they won the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Young Performer.

Life and career

Coltrane was born in Austin, Texas to Genevieve, an equine-assisted therapist for people with autism, and Bruce Salmon, a musician. Their parents divorced when they was nine, and their mother subsequently remarried. Coltrane's half-sister, Evelyn, was born when they were eleven.
In 2001, at age six, Coltrane was cast by filmmaker Richard Linklater to play the title character of sorts of the film Boyhood; Linklater wanted to make an unprecedented film that would show a boy's coming of age, but with the actors growing up or aging on screen. Coltrane and other members of the cast were filmed intermittently for several days at a time between May 2002 and August 2013, when they turned 19; there were 45 days of filming altogether. During Coltrane's childhood, they also appeared in some other movies, including a small role in Linklater's 2006 film Fast Food Nation.
In 2016, Coltrane starred in the Barack Obama drama film Barry, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. The following year, they co-starred with Emma Watson in James Ponsoldt's film adaptation of the Dave Eggers novel The Circle, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Coltrane uses singular they/them pronouns.

Filmography

Awards and nominations