Who Is Elias Janssen? His Personal And Professional Life In Detail

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  • Post last modified:August 22, 2021
Who Is Elias Janssen? His Personal And Professional Life In Detail
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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 was born on November 20, 2015.
His real-life mother Audrey Starr has also appeared in Jane the Virgin. She plays the character of Shopper in the show’s fifth season, the fifth episode (chapter eighty-six). Elias’ father is Joey Janssen is half Korean.
Janssen has an older brother and sister.
Elias Janssen with his siblings
Elias Janssen with his siblings. Source: Instagram
In March 2021, Janssen through his Instagram revealed he has a bit of Korean ancestry.  Sharing an image where he is wearing a hanbok, Jane the Virgin actor wrote he is a mixed bag. The young star added he is a ‘little bit of this and a little bit of that.’ Whatever the case, Janssen declared he is proud to be an Asian American.
Through the post, Elias also wrote against racism. The rest of the subtitles read,
“Racism should have no place in our hearts and communities. Together we can say NO to hate and violence. #hateisavirus”
Further, Elias also shared the picture of his Korean grandmother as well as his great-grandmother.
He resides in California with his family.

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.”

Coll is a Puerto Rican actress who was Miss Puerto Rico in 1967. She is known for appearing in films such as The Godfather Part II and Lean on Me and television series including Switched at Birth, Glee, and Teen Wolf.

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
Elias Janssen with his family. Source: Instagram

He 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.

Further reports suggested Janssen appearing in the image. About five months later, confirmations regarding the cancellation of the spin-off started to circulate. Eventually, CW President Mark Pedowitz came forward and said the spin-off didn’t have “same quirkiness and fun” as Jane The Virgin.
Apparently, The Novela had even filmed a pilot, but the network ultimately passed on it, a decision that shocked many series’ followers including Elias’ fans.

David

Narayan Shankar, who goes by the name David, is a seasoned writer and editor, who has a passion for covering the entertainment industry. He has years of experience writing content, especially in the entertainment niche. He is currently an editor and writer for celebsuburb.com along with other websites under our organization named Pandora Group of Companies.