MEET ELLIOTT
Full Name → Elliot Michael Gilbert
Age → 35
Birthday → January 29th, 1989
Order & Type → first, solo
Gender & Pronouns → cis man, he/they
Sexuality → homosexual
Occupation → recording artist under the stage name “Starchild”
THEIR STORY
Elliott was born and raised in Paramus, NJ – just close enough to NYC to grow up in the shadow of its reputation, and to be exposed to a huge array of cultural experiences. His parents were firmly middle class: his mother Marianne was a middle school art teacher and gave private art lessons on the side, and his father Ray was a CPA. His mother’s strong artistic influence led to Elliott developing his own methods of self-expression from a young age, including learning to alter and sew his own clothes when he wanted something with a little more flair.
The performance bug first bit when Elliott was cast as Schroeder in his 5th grade production of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. He started with voice lessons, and added piano and guitar as he got older. By the time he reached high school, Elliott had branched out to explore different genres of music, and he convinced his parents to let him take periodic trips into the city for shows and concerts.
Despite his dad’s career, Ray had an attic full of old vinyl records that Elliott discovered one summer. As his own personal style continued to take shape, he took refuge in the creation of a much more daring alter ego – an homage of sorts to the music his father’s collection introduced him to, heavily influenced by David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust period. His ‘Starchild’ persona continued to evolve as he grew older, but it gave him a creative outlet as well as a means of self-expression.
As a high school senior, all of Elliott’s college applications went towards schools in New York. AMDA offered him a place (for Vocal Performance) with enough of a scholarship to make it worth his while, so he made the move to the city while starting to play local clubs on the side whenever possible. After college, Elliott found himself working in a local recording studio running tech while he focused on his music. He contributed background vocals whenever needed, and was eventually scouted during an amateur cabaret night at a local gay club, mostly because of his unique vocal range and theatrical stage presence. He suddenly found himself on the other side of the booth, and soon enough Starchild started playing larger and larger venues around New York.
His first album dropped the following year and garnered significant airplay, creating enough buzz for him to make a name for himself and start to build a surprisingly dedicated (albeit eclectic) fan base. His second album was released in the summer of 2022, and charted 4 singles by the end of the year. At his label’s urging, he went on tour the following year, and while he hasn’t exactly reached household name status, he’s moderately recognizable in his stage persona and it’s started to become an issue. Fortunately, when he’s not in full ‘Starchild’ mode, Elliott Gilbert is much harder to pick out in a crowd, so he still maintains a measure of privacy.
Once his tour wound down, Elliott started looking for a quieter base of operations, away from the chaos and toxic party culture of New York. He keeps an apartment in the city, but a smaller, more secluded home base seemed like a good investment for when he needed downtime to relax, as well as someplace he could work on new music in relative peace. He isn’t exactly hiding his day job, but he’s not drawing attention to it either. As long as he can find a space to just be plain Elliott without the pressures and trappings of Starchild, he doesn’t mind occasionally getting recognized without the costume.
