"Hi, I'm Elliot Douglas, an actor, musician, climber... and proudly deaf and trans," he says. "I believe in in-person community spaces where there's room for everyone," he adds, pausing to tap his red hearing aids. "I like making my disability visible. If I take them out, it's practically silent – so I wear them loud and proud." After nearly snagging a part in Sex Education ("getting to the top two taught me my transness and deafness aren't barriers, they're unique selling points"), Douglas landed his first proper gig on Heartstopper in 2023. "Doing that one-minute scene was a revelation," he says with a grin. His journey is stitched together by bold cuts, like having short hair to show off his hearing aids, auditions that defy drama-school dogma and getting to the top of peaks, literal (he regularly scales climbing walls) or metaphorical. "Taking ownership of what once made me feel like ->-bleeped-<- – and turning it bright?" he says. "That's powerful."
~by Emily Phillips. 10 magazine
