Nicholas Elia

After putting in roughly three years doing television commercials, child actor Nicholas Elia landed his first screen role at eight, playing the son of no less than Michael Keaton in the 2005 horror thriller "White Noise." In 2006, the Canadian-born Elia appeared in a dark film short called "Children of Fate," and made his television debut on an episode of the hour-long series "Masters of Horror." Elia's professional work really took off the following year, with three film projects--including a part in the Hollywood crime thriller "War," a central role in the thriller "When a Man Falls"--as well as his debut as Ben Braeden on the WB horror series "Supernatural," where he appeared on six episodes into 2011. In 2008, Elia was cast by the Wachowski brothers into by far his highest profile child role, as the younger version of the title character (as played by Emile Hirsch) in "Speed Racer," the film which was adapted from a Japanese children's cartoon. If any through-line can be drawn in Elia's young career, meanwhile, it's a tendency to choose horror-based projects: in 2009, in between seasons on "Supernatural," Elia had a significant part in the horror thriller "The Shortcut," and in 2011, he was a central character in two episodes of the Vancouver-based "The Haunting Hour: The Series."