Claybourne Elder

Claybourne Elder (born April 21, 1982 ) is an American actor, singer, and writer who is best known for his work on television and on Broadway.

Early life and education Elder was born in Springville, Utah. His mother was a schoolteacher and his father was a carpenter. At an early age he played violin in the school orchestra.

Elder studied acting at the Moscow Klasse Centre in Russia before attending Brigham Young University (BYU). He was kicked out of BYU for being gay, and ultimately earned a degree in dramaturgy and directing from the University of Utah.

Career Elder received rave reviews and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Leading Actor in A Play for originating the role of "Ollie Olson" in One Arm directed by Moisés Kaufman. He was nominated for a 2015 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Leading Actor in a Musical for Allegro at Classic Stage. He originated the roles of "Buck Barrow" in Bonnie & Clyde, "Hollis Bessemer" in Stephen Sondheim's Road Show and "Michael Victor" in Venice.

He played the Soldier/Alex and understudied Jake Gyllenhaal in the Broadway revival of Sunday in the Park with George, which opened in February 2017. He also played the role in the concert performances in October 2016 at New York City Center.

Elder can be heard on the cast recordings of Bonnie & Clyde, Road Show, Venice and Sunday in the Park with George.

Elder guest-starred as Pete O'Malley in the second season of The CW's The Carrie Diaries.

Regionally, Elder played George in Sunday in the Park with George at the Signature Theatre, Arlington, Virginia, in 2014.

On Broadway, Elder played the role of Andy in the 2021 revival of Stephen Sondheim's musical Company.

Elder played Gaston in the 2023 production of Beauty and the Beast at The Muny.

Starting in 2022, Elder played John Adams (descendant of the President) in The Gilded Age . In May 2026, he joined the cast of Little Shop of Horrors replacing Andy Karl as Orin Scrivello at the Westside Theatre, Off-Broadway.

Theater

Video games

Other productions We Chose to Go to the Moon (2026)

Personal life Elder and director Eric Rosen were married on July 28, 2012, in New York State. In 2017, they had a son through surrogacy.

In 2022, many news outlets reported a human interest story about Elder. In 2007, as a 23-year-old aspiring actor visiting New York City, he was in the standing-room section of the Broadway musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee when a stranger approached him, noted his obvious enthusiasm for theater, gave him $200, and told him to spend it the next night on a ticket to a revival of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Elder did see that show and considered it—and the stranger's kindness—to be the factors that helped him decide to move to New York and pursue acting. By 2022 Elder was starring on Broadway in a different Sondheim revival, Company, alongside Patti LuPone, one of the stars of the Sweeney Todd production that so affected the course of Elder's career; at the same time, Elder was also starring in the HBO series The Gilded Age with Michael Cerveris, who had played the title role in that Sweeney Todd revival. Elder was reunited with Mark Howell, the stranger who had given him the money, and "paid forward" the favor by buying strangers tickets to Company. In July 2022, Elder retold this story on an episode of the WBEZ radio program This American Life that examined acts of kindness from strangers.