The Story Of San Dimas High Alumni JJ Batteast

JJ Batteast is an African American male that was born on May 21, 2003, in Chicago. At an age of only 3 years old, JJ decided he wanted to pursue music and acting and do something with it in the future. His mom supported his dream and began taking to him to several auditions. Unfortunately, though, he never got any callbacks. He kept his head up and his family continued to support him through everything. One day, his mom heard about auditions for a Disney The Lion King Tour. He went, auditioned, and landed the role of young Simba! He toured with the cast from January 2015 until August 2015. JJ’s life was starting to take huge steps in the right direction and he couldn’t feel more blessed.

After his huge success with the Lion King Tour, he went to broadway and practiced as an understudy and then eventually gained enough confidence to try out for a role as a young Micheal Jackson in Motown The Musical and he got the part! This was another huge step in JJ’s career. He was doing what he wanted to do while making money and having a lot of fun while also getting the recognition he deserved. He toured with Motown The Musical and eventually earned his broadway credit after his debut in July. His story doesn’t stop there. After his amazing success with the Lion King Tour and the Motown The Musical Tour, he continued acting and eventually got another role on A Christmas Story Live his freshman year of high school.

In A Christmas Story Live, JJ played the role of Flick and is known for his scene where he got his tongue stuck in a pole that was freezing with snow. He was gone from school for several months but eventually returned shortly after A Christmas Story Live concluded. Shortly after, he was cast in a movie called Detroit. After that, he was also in the movie Dutch where he played the younger role of the main character. Sadly, like a lot of other actors in the film industry his career took a big turn when Covid hit the United States in 2020. He was unable to audition for movies due to the pandemic being such a big issue.

Although his acting career slowed down a lot due to quarantine, he went back to his roots and began making music. He kept learning and learning and eventually came up with an idea for his first official song which was titled “What I needed”. He advertised it well and even made a music video to go along with the song. Featured in the video was his friend Raymond J. His song is now streaming on all music platforms. JJ has achieved a lot early on in life and has a long way to go. When asked about his acting career today he stated, “Slowly but surely getting back into it. The pandemic slowed things down a whole lot. It’s been hard to keep the motivation honestly it feels like I’m starting from scratch which is also weird because it’s like a new birth of motivation and makes me want it even more.” The young singer and actor sounds hopeful and confident that he will get back to acting very very soon. Quarantine was a curse but in a way, a bit of a blessing. Now he’s making music along with acting which is super inspiring. He’s been wanting this since he was 3 years old and slowly but surely, his dreams are becoming a reality.