Elias grew up in a pragmatic Chinese-Indonesian family in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta. Raised by a real estate developer father and a former 90s commercial model mother, he was caught between his father’s business expectations and his mother’s entertainment ambitions.

To please his father, Elias studied International Business. However, he secretly spent his weekends attending acting classes without his parents' knowledge.

At age 21, Elias skipped college to play an extra in a TV movie. Seeing himself on screen made him realize his true passion lay in acting, not financial reports. Following a fierce argument with his father, Elias moved out to live independently, building his acting career from the ground up.

Elias still can't seem to win his father over; to his dad, acting is still just a dead-end hobby. On top of that, he's hit a massive crossroads in his career. He has to choose between playing it safe as a popular "idol actor" or risking his commercial success to chase serious, heavyweight film roles.