Elise Bauman

Elise Janae Bauman (born October 23, 1990) is a Canadian actress, best known for her role as Laura Hollis, the lead character of the popular LGBT web series Carmilla.

Bauman was homeschooled for most of her life, then attended Rockway Mennonite Collegiate for high school.

Bauman began working professionally in the theatre from an early age. In 2009, she made the move to New York City to further her studies, she attended Circle in the Square Theatre School, where she was cast as Anya in the graduating classes' production of The Cherry Orchard, performed on Circle in the Square Theatre's Broadway Stage. In the fall, she returned to the stage once again in Red One Theatre Collective’s The Skriker, by Caryl Churchill, which garnered rave reviews and was rated 5 N’s in NOW Magazine.

Carmilla

Bauman in 2014

In 2014, Bauman was cast as the lead character Laura Hollis, the naive and headstrong student of Silas University, in the Canadian web series Carmilla, based on the 1871 Gothic vampire novella of the same name by J. Sheridan Le Fanu. The series has become popular online for its depiction of LGBT characters and has been viewed over 45 million times on the KindaTV YouTube channel, attracting over 200,000 fans worldwide. When interviewed about how she feels playing a queer character in a series that isn't about being queer, Bauman said:

You don’t see any of the characters being ostracized because of it [their sexuality]. In a way, it’s exactly the opposite of what happens on other shows. Their sexuality isn’t the thing that is sticking out about them. It’s the norm. I think that is so refreshing and that it is so wonderful to see...

On February 13, 2016, it was announced that Carmilla will air its third and final season in the summer of 2016. In 2016, the series won a Canadian Screen Award and a Rockie Award for Branded Content at the Banff World Media Festival.

As a result of Carmilla's popularity online, Bauman has garnered much attention on social media for her role, primarily on Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram, where she has since amassed more than 100,000 combined followers. In 2015, Bauman was placed 9th on AfterEllen's Hot 100 List.

Other work

Recently she co-starred in the feature film Almost Adults, directed by Sarah Rotella.

Bauman currently resides in Toronto where she studies regularly with Shaun Benson and David Sutcliffe.