Born in Brooklyn, Elias grew up in Rockland County, New York where he got his start in television by creating the innovative local cable TV series called "Fried Cheese" when he was only 15 years old. The show, which had a loyal cult audience, gave Elias the freedom to experiment with various styles of visual story telling. Elias was the lead creative and gained invaluable production experience through, writing, editing, shooting, directing, and even starring in each episode. This early success set the tone for his career as he continued to produce short independent projects doing a multitude of jobs in every kind of genre. From his documentary on the Iceland indie music scene (The Iceland Experience) to his award-winning short film about gangsters fighting zombies (Redskins Revenge), Elias was focused on learning everything he could about the craft of filmmaking.

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This culminated in his first feature film, "The Crimson Mask." The film, an official selection at both the Cannes and Toronto Independent Film festivals, was the surprise hit of the festival circuit, going on to win over 40 Independent film awards from Amsterdam to Honolulu. Critics and festival audiences were wowed by Elias' ambitious project, a complex narrative with comic book visuals that was produced on a shoe string budget. His passion for the film and ability to make the most of what limited resources he had, also prompted many festival juries to award Elias Best Director and Best Editor for Crimson Mask.

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The Crimson Mask was able to attain worldwide distribution and continues to be a cult symbol of true independent filmmaking spinning off into a monthly comic book from VIP Comics and an episodic mini-series on HULU .

 

Elias will be touring the festival circuit Fall 2014 with his new Project " The Man From The City", while developing Feature Films with Canadian partners EVOS MEDIA.