March 21, 2022

USC graduate featured in short film

Upper St. Clair High School graduate Ella Gans was recently featured in a short film created by the Blackburn Center and East Suburban Citizen Advocacy, located in Westmoreland County. Titled, “Abuse: There is Support,” the video aims to support individuals with disabilities who have been impacted by abuse.

Ella was drawn to the project because of its important subject matter.

“I’ve seen the effects abuse can have on a person,” Ella said. “It’s awful, and if there’s anything at all I can do to help people understand the topic, I want to do it.”

This video is the first of a series of short videos on the topic of abuse.

“Abuse is a difficult subject to cover, but it’s one that needs to be talked about. It isn’t always easy to recognize abusive behavior, especially with emotional abuse,” she said. “You can sort of trick yourself into thinking that what’s being done to you is normal, or that you deserve it, or even that what’s happening is your own fault. Even if someone you know recognizes the abusive behavior, you might not listen to them, or maybe think that they’re overreacting.”

To land the part Ella, who graduated from Upper St. Clair in 2020, answered an open casting call.

“It was pretty cool! When we got to filming, I was given simple choreography and was asked to look at the camera and say the line,” Ella said. “It took a few takes to get it all right, but overall, it was fairly quick!”

Although Ella has not done a lot of other on-camera work, she has been voice acting for the past few years.

“I’ve even been in a handful of professional projects, like this one,” she said. “I also have a YouTube channel that I use to practice my voice acting, or just post whatever I feel like, called EllaGVA. I hope to make voice acting my full-time job!”

Ella is currently a first-year student at Kenyon College in Ohio. She hopes to major in drama.