Elijah Canlas

Elijah Luiz Madiclum Canlas was born on August 16, 2000, in Manila. He is the second son of Rommel and Lyn Canlas. Second of three siblings, he is called "Jelo" by his older brother Jerom Andrei, and younger brother, Jamile Matthew "JM" (2005/06–2023).^[2] The Canlas brothers are all actors who played various roles in film, theater, and television. With their mother being a ballerina, and theater actress in Bacolod, they were exposed to arts, and theater at a very young age.^{[citation needed]}

Canlas finished grade school at Statefields School, a private institute located in Bacoor, Cavite. In Junior High School, he studied Theater Arts at the Philippine High School for the Arts and finished Senior High School at MINT College. He is currently taking up his Bachelor of Arts in Philippine Arts at the University of the Philippines Manila while continuously pursuing his acting career.^[3]

When he was 14 years old, he debuted as one of the four main characters in the film Sundalong Kanin (2014), a Cinemalaya entry directed by Janice O'Hara.^[4]

In 2014, he auditioned for the main role of Kalel, 15 when it was still titled Son of God, but got rejected because the role was supposed to be given to someone who resembles a mestizo son of a Spanish friar. Four years later in 2018, Canlas met with director Jun Robles Lana because he was looking for a talent manager. During the meeting, Lana suddenly said Canlas could play the lead in his next film as Kalel.^[5]

A year after portraying his role in the film Edward (2019), his performance won him a Best Supporting Actor award (PinakaPASADOng Katuwang na Aktor) from the Pampelikulang Samahan ng mga Dalubguro (PASADO),^[6] alongside other nominees such as Baron Geisler, Joross Gamboa and Ian Veneracion.^[7] He also won Best Acting Ensemble together with the other cast members of the film Kalel, 15 (2019) in the 2020 PARAGON Critics Choice Awards.

In May 2020, he was cast as one of the main actors in the YouTube series, Gameboys. Produced by The IdeaFirst Company,^[8] it is a boys love series in the Philippines that tackles the story of two young men who find each other online amid the COVID-19 pandemic.^[9][10][11] Along with Kokoy de Santos as Gavreel Alarcon, Canlas starred in the thirteen-part web series as Cairo Lazaro, an up-and-coming online game streamer.^[12]

On August 5, 2020, he won his first Best Actor award at the prestigious 17th Asian Film Festival^[13] in Rome, Italy for Kalel, 15.^[14][15] On December 22 of the same year, he was named by CNN Philippines as "Actor of the Year".^[16]

In 2021, Canlas dated Miles Ocampo and announced their relationship to the public in 2022. In 2023, he admitted that he and Ocampo broke up.^[17]

His younger brother, former child actor JM Canlas, died on August 3, 2023, at the age of 17. A cause of death was not revealed,^[2] though his older brother Jerom hinted that JM had "been struggling with his mental health."^[18]