From French-Speaking Canada to New York Theatre: Benoit Elias-Roberge's Journey Into American Acting

Benoit Elias-Roberge does not remember exactly how old he was when he first started acting. What he does remember is wanting to be on stage. Growing up in a small French-speaking school, he took part in almost every school production he could, often going after the roles with the most lines. He wanted to be the leading man. At the time, he probably did not think much about where that interest would take him, he simply knew that he enjoyed performing and making people listen to a story.

Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and raised in Hamilton, Ontario, Benoit spent most of his childhood in a French-speaking environment. His school had only a few hundred students, but that did not stop him from finding opportunities to perform. Those early productions gave him a place to explore characters, speak to an audience and discover what storytelling could do. Years later, that same interest would take him from local theatre in Canada to the stages of New York.

Finding His Voice in Another Language

As Benoit grew older, school productions gradually led to local theatre work in Hamilton. He joined the Hamilton Conservatory for the Arts, where he began performing in English. It was a significant change. Most of his education had been in French, and speaking English was still something he was learning to do with confidence.

Rather than wait until he felt completely comfortable, Benoit chose to put himself in situations where he would have to improve. Acting in another language brought its own difficulties, but it also gave him a new way to challenge himself. Each performance helped him become more comfortable with English and pushed him to keep working on his craft.

One experience that stayed with him was a production he helped devise with a group of young actors for the 2019 Hamilton Fringe Festival. The performance took place inside one of Hamilton's historic buildings and followed its story through different periods of time. It was a different kind of experience from the school productions he had grown up doing. The group was creating a story together and bringing it to life in a place that was already full of history.

The festival became an important point in his journey. It confirmed something he had felt since childhood: acting was not simply an activity he enjoyed. It was something he wanted to continue doing as a career.

Taking a Chance in New York

Benoit's next major step came when he applied to New York University. He describes the decision as something he did almost on a whim. Getting into NYU as an international student, particularly during the COVID period and with English as a second language, was not an easy prospect. Still, he applied, received an offer and made the move to New York.

Starting over in another country meant learning how to navigate a new environment while continuing to develop as an actor. There was a new city to understand, a different professional community to enter and the challenge of finding his place among other young performers. For someone who had spent much of his life working in French, it was another considerable step outside his comfort zone.

At NYU, Benoit pursued a degree in drama and also completed a minor in astronomy. His academic interests extended beyond the performing arts, but acting remained the direction he wanted to follow. He graduated with an Outstanding Performance award from the NYU Drama Awards, an achievement that recognised his work during his time at the university.

He also began taking part in independent productions, gaining experience beyond the classroom. These opportunities helped him understand the demands of working in New York theatre and introduced him to the people and processes involved in bringing a production to the stage.

Finding Another Way to Tell Stories

While acting remained his main focus, Benoit found another creative interest during his time in New York: lighting design.

He had always enjoyed painting and making things with his hands. Lighting design brought some of that interest back into his life, giving him a different way to work with colour, atmosphere and visual storytelling. He describes it as painting with light. Instead of using a canvas, he was helping shape what an audience saw on stage.

Since moving to New York in 2022, Benoit has worked on the lighting design teams of more than ten professional Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway productions, often balancing this work with his studies and acting commitments.

Among his projects was a sold-out run of Alice by Heart at Theatre for a New City in 2024. He also worked on an independent production of Into the Woods at The Flea Theatre. Another important part of his experience has been his involvement with Clubbed Thumb's Summerworks festival. Over three years, he worked on nine productions with the company, including the world premiere of Ro Reddick's Cold War Choir Practice, which received multiple Lucille Lortel Award nominations, including one for Best New Play.

Working in both acting and lighting design has given Benoit a wider view of theatre. He understands what it means to build a character and carry a story as a performer, but he has also spent time thinking about how that story reaches an audience through the work happening around the actors. Both experiences have become part of how he approaches creative projects.

Making Room for His Own Stories

Benoit's interests have also begun to move beyond the stage. He is developing a two-person play titled Father Figures and has been writing independent film projects, including a series called Proxima and a film titled The Distance to the Stars.

His debut short film, Heritage, is currently in post-production. The story follows a father who passes away and leaves his bar to his son and estranged daughter. It explores family relationships and what happens when people are left to deal with the things that were never fully resolved between them.

For Benoit, writing is a natural extension of acting. He has always been interested in stories, whether he is performing someone else's words or creating characters of his own. Writing gives him the chance to explore ideas from the beginning and consider how he wants an audience to experience them.

He hopes to eventually write, direct and act in his own films. A conversation with actor and filmmaker Mark Duplass during his time at NYU helped him think more clearly about that goal. Duplass spoke about using acting opportunities to support independent projects, and Benoit saw a possible path for his own career in that approach.

He also hopes to establish a production company that can help develop and fund projects by other independent artists. It is an ambition that reflects something he has valued since his early years in theatre: encouraging the people around him to pursue their creative interests.

Carrying His Background Forward

Looking back, Benoit sees his French-speaking upbringing differently than he once did. For a long time, he thought of it as something he needed to overcome to succeed in an English-speaking industry. Moving to New York and working with people from different backgrounds helped him recognise that his experiences were also part of what made him who he is as an artist.

He has learned that building a career in the arts takes more than individual effort. Relationships matter, and so does the way people treat one another. Coming from a family without established connections in the entertainment industry, he had to reach out to agents, managers and casting directors himself. He learned to look for opportunities and introduce himself to people who might help him take the next step.

That experience has also shaped how he works with others. He values communication, kindness and supporting fellow artists, particularly in an industry where independent productions often depend on people coming together and making things happen with limited resources.

Benoit is still working out what the next five or ten years will look like. He wants to keep acting, develop his own films and build a company that gives other artists room to create. There is no single role or project that defines everything he hopes to do.

What remains consistent is the interest that started in a small school in Canada. He still wants to tell stories, take on new challenges and find ways to bring people into a world they might not otherwise experience. The stages may be different now, and the language may have changed, but the reason he started has stayed much the same.

About the Author

Sashindra Suresh is an experienced writer specializing in artificial intelligence, software development, and emerging technologies. With a strong ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear, engaging insights, she has contributed to a wide range of publications and platforms. Her work focuses on making cutting-edge innovations accessible to both industry professionals and curious readers alike.