Quotes from Keiynan Lonsdale

People often expect that I should know a lot of things because I'm black. I don't really explain it to people, but it's like, I'm from Australia, my Mum's Aussie, and I grew up with five other Aussie brothers and sisters.

I love music. I seriously cannot wait until the day comes that I get to perform around the world for people, I've wanted to do that my whole life.

From, like, two, three years old, I was obsessed with Michael Jackson and just wanted to be on stage with him. And my mum put me in dance classes, but I had a lot of social anxiety and didn't want to be around people; I didn't like to look at anyone in the eye, so that was a difficult thing to get over.

I'd only been out for, like, six months before I booked 'Insurgent'. It was my first role in America, and it was a huge movie franchise. All I'd ever hear at the time was how Hollywood treated gay men or queer men, so I was, like, 'Well, I'm not going to shoot myself in the foot before I've even started life here,' you know?

I just pack up my pantry with lots of Oreos and other chocolate treats to disguise the fact that I don't have Tim Tams.

No one really had to encourage me to become an artist; it was just something I knew I had to do. I was drawn to things that seemed impossible.

I grew up with my mom, and my mom had six kids, and I was the youngest, but I had a different father than my brothers and sisters, and I only met him when I was ten years old. Then he introduced me to his other children.

I was the youngest of the house that I grew up in, so I feel like, as the youngest, you have it pretty good. At the same time, I guess I required a lot of attention, being afraid of so many different things. So I was never seeking attention; I wanted the opposite.

You can live your dreams, and you can believe in magic. You can live your dreams, and you can be yourself.

You can live your dreams and wear dresses. You can live your dreams and kiss the one that you love no matter what gender they are.

I don't really know anything about fashion, I just kind of wing it and do what I want at the time.

I record into my phone as soon as I hear a track. Melody comes first for me, and then my gibberish usually forms into lyrics and a concept from there.

I'm living for myself, everything I do is to achieve my goals, so I'd love to stop caring so much about what I want by then and maybe focus on a bigger picture.

I live in a one bedroom apartment by myself which is cool. I like to have my stuff exactly where I want it, so living alone is good for me.

I reckon my fear landscape would be me having to jump out of a plane or having to skydive. I would see that as one of the scariest things ever. And then also, I'm really not a fan of spiders and bugs.

I originally went up for a role on the spinoff show, 'Legends of Tomorrow,' and that led me to audition for Wally West in 'The Flash'. I enjoy auditioning in general, but this was a particularly fun process because it was so unexpected.

It's important that I work with people where they know why they're hiring me and that they're looking to create art without fear. Anyone who uses those excuses to not cast people or to create extremely stereotypical characters, they're creating out of fear, and to me that's really boring.

Spent way too many years hating myself, thinking I was less valuable because I was different... which is just untrue.

Aussie culture is pretty relaxed in general, but at the same time people know how to work really hard to go above and beyond what's expected of them.

I think being back in Australia has kind of helped a little bit because you just feel really comfortable around everyone, and it's the same environment that I've grown up in.

I hope we can all learn to embrace who we are & not judge people who aren't exactly the same as us.

There's a lot to the story. And there are a lot of things I've learned about myself and about love, and I'm really grateful for the lessons, and I hope I can share that through art. I look for projects that allow me to do that, whether it's music or acting.