TEIGNMOUTH has a well deserved reputation for producing artists of all kind musicians, actors, painters and writers.

Now another talented youngster from the resort is taking the first steps in what he hopes will be a long career in the theatre.

Adam Elms, whose family the Nathans have been in the town since the 1600s, has just graduated from the University of the West of England at Bristol where he studied drama and English, and is already involved in a host of productions, both on stage and behind the scenes.

He lives, eats and drinks the theatre life, and admits: I always wanted to be an actor, ever since I could walk.

I played Puck in an outdoor production of A Midsummers Night Dream at Inverteign School when I was eight, and simply loved it.

My teacher Flo Witcombe really inspired me to carry on performing. I was at Teignmouth Community College for eight years and managed to become involved in the youth theatre companies as well as grasping various other opportunities open to me.

From the first production of Ratz in 2000, when I was 12, I had to play an old, pompous councillor in his 60s, and since then I have been hooked.

Adam comes from a family with an artistic streak. His mother, Mandy, was a dancer in the 60s, and could have gone on to join the professional ranks, but decided it was not the life for her.

His uncle, Ian Nathan, took a similar road, and trained with the Royal Ballet School for a few years, before changing direction to become an artist instead. He is now one of the top wildlife painters in the world, with his work in great demand.

Recent credits for Adam include playing Florio in Tis Pity Shes A Whore, which is playing in Bristol, before going to an international festival in Minsk, Belarus, as the only UK entry.

He is also directing The Real Inspector Hound, and Black Comedy, for the Edinburgh fringe festival, through the Breakout Theatre Company, which he helped set up earlier this year.

Adam was also involved in putting together the childrens theatre company, The Mummers and The Puppers, which for the past three years has travelled to folk festivals in Somerset, putting on plays and workshops.

His parents live in Bishopsteignton, and he was heavily involved in the local theatre scene, and attended specialist courses, residentials and workshops with the Devon Youth Theatre, the National Youth Theatre, the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, and Plymouths Theatre Royal.

His career seems to be really blossoming, and although he is busy travelling to projects all over the country and abroad, still enjoys coming home to Teignmouth.

Most of my family and friends are still there, and I will always go back, he said.