Ellar Coltrane

Coltrane was born in Austin, Texas, to Genevieve (née Kinney), an equine-assisted therapist for autistic people,^[3] and Bruce Salmon, a musician.^[4] His parents divorced when he was nine, and his mother subsequently remarried.^[5] Coltrane's half-sister, Evelyn, was born when he was 11.^[3][4]

In 2001, at age six, Coltrane was cast by filmmaker Richard Linklater to play the principal character in 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, by which time Coltrane had turned 19; there were 45 days of filming altogether.^[6] During Coltrane's childhood, he also appeared in various other films, including a small role in Linklater's 2006 film Fast Food Nation.^[7]

In 2016, Coltrane appeared in the Barack Obama drama film Barry, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.^[8] The following year, he co-starred with Emma Watson in James Ponsoldt's film adaptation of the Dave Eggers novel The Circle (2017), which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.^[9]

In 2021, Coltrane spoke of his discomfort with binary gender roles: "For me, the binary gender demarcation always has felt just kind of like ... a charade, like this character that I have to play", and expressed a preference to be identified with singular they/them pronouns.^[10]

Since, Coltrane has started using he/him pronouns.^[11]