Elias Janssen is a child star best known for portraying little Mateo in The CW’s romantic comedy-drama and satirical telenovela, Jane The Virgin. He has also appeared in other series such as Lethal Weapon (2016) and The Mindy Project (2012).
Janssen is also an Imagen Awards nominee. While Jane The Virgin has said goodbye to the network, over the course of its run it managed to gain quite a following; for itself and its stars as well. In fact, the show has already established Janssen as one of the hottest properties among child actors.
So know all about his stardom, life before Jane The Virgin and after the series finale.
Elias Janssen Is Partly Korean
Elias Janssen with his siblings. Source: Instagram“Racism should have no place in our hearts and communities. Together we can say NO to hate and violence. #hateisavirus”
Jane The Virgin’s Fans Criticized Him For Replacing The Original Mateo; Gina Rodriguez Fired Back
The show’s viewers were taken a little aback when they turned on the Season 4 premiere of Jane The Virgin. The show had all of the usual characters, except for one omission — little Mateo, son of Gina Rodriguez’s Jane Villanueva.
When fans last saw Jane’s four-year-old boy, it was the adorable Joseph Sanders who was portraying the character. Sanders joined in the middle of Season 3 when the show flashed forward to take Mateo from a baby to a toddler. Over the course, the audience fell in love with Joseph. They went into a bit of a shock so imagine their shock when Elias Janssen replaced Sanders.
For some groups of people, it seemed too much and they went as far as attacking the then five-year-old Janssen.
In fact, Rodriguez had to take to Twitter to defend her new on-screen son, after a number of fans made some rude comments about Elias.
The actress fired back tweeting,
“I’m going to need all y’all commenting on new Mateo to take one dirty second and realize you are insulting a 5-year-old!”
It was actually Joseph’s choice to leave the show in the first place. TVLine insiders reported the child actor was too busy with school to continue on the show, something his real mom confirmed on Twitter.
Elias Janssen Is Vegan
In January 2018, an award-winning Broadway, Film & TV actress Ivonne Coll who also played Abuela Alba on Jane The Virgin, on her Twitter, revealed that Janssen is vegan. On the show, Alba is the great-grandmother of Mateo.
While announcing the midseason premiere of Jane the Virgin, Coll, sharing imaging of herself alongside, Janssen, wrote,
“This is Elias Janssen, he plays my great-grandson Mateo♡ #JanetheVirgin. He also plays drums and is a Vegan! Watch us this Friday Jan26 at the #CW midseason Premiere at 9 pm Pacific time.”
Some Of His Favorites
Janssen through his socials has often teased or talked about his favorite shows, leisure activities, and many more. Some of his likes include Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, and Disney’s Mandalorian.
Elias Janssen with his family. Source: InstagramHe is also a fan of Marvel movies and characters. Janssen loves Nintendo switch and legos. One of his video game choices is Zelda Breath Of The Wild. Additionally, Elias also loves rollerblading.
While he has sported Harry Potter apparel, it is unclear if he is actually Potter Heads. The same is the case with My Hero Academia and Star Wars.
Is Jane The Virgin Spin Off Happening? Will Janssen Reprise His Role?
Jane’s spin-off was well on the verge of hitting the green light up until 2019. What’s more, insiders very well projected that the show’s fans had an extremely good chance of seeing Elias reprising his role of Mateo. The spin-off, however, was reportedly going to be in an anthology format.
Sources forwarded the spin-offs were being developed based on novels written by Rodriguez’s character, Jane. Independent reported the CW Television Network had ordered a pilot for a Jane the Virgin spin-off – and Rodriguez, had also shared her own announcement on Instagram.
