The Live Like Ethan Arts Foundation

Ethan Michael Ramos. Singer. Dancer. Actor. Writer. Advocate.

A seventeen-year-old triple threat from Southern California with a baritone voice, a stage presence that filled rooms, and a heart that filled rooms even bigger. Ethan trained in vocal performance, acting, and dance — tap, jazz, and musical theatre — and by his teenage years he was a working regional artist with a resume that would have impressed performers twice his age. Solo Musical Theatre Performance winner at the 2023 International Thespy Awards. Three-time California Educational Theatre Association Merit Award honoree. Published as a BroadwayWorld student writer. Gala soloist for Moonlight Stage Productions.

But the credits are just the headline. To understand Ethan, you have to know the kid behind the spotlight.

He was compassionate, gentle, and soft-spoken. He had the biggest heart and the wildest imagination you could find. From the time he could walk, anything that vaguely resembled a microphone became a microphone — a hairbrush, a spoon, a Lego, the TV remote. The house was always full of singing, dancing, and small productions cast with the imaginary friends only he could see. He turned ordinary rooms into stages and made magic out of nothing. His love of performing began at Disneyland, before he could really explain it. There's a photograph of him, very small, looking up at Tinkerbell as she crossed the night sky with fireworks blooming behind her. He's in complete awe. That picture says more about who Ethan became than anything we could write. He saw magic, and from that moment on, his life was about giving that same magic back to other people.

Formal training started at age seven, when his mom signed him up for a Vista Broadway Theatre summer camp he wasn't sure he wanted to attend. The show was Frozen. He was cast as the Dock Master. He never looked back.

Over the next decade, Ethan built a remarkable body of work. He performed regionally with Moonlight Stage Productions (Into the Woods, R&H Cinderella) and Oceanside Theatre Company (Welcome to Sleepy Hollow). At Rancho Buena Vista High School, he played Production Tenor in Singin' in the Rain, Marlin in Finding Nemo, Prince Dauntless in Once Upon a Mattress, Aslasken in An Enemy of the People, and Beast in Descendants. At the California State Thespian Festival, he played Barry Glickman in the California premiere of The Prom: School Edition. With Moonlight Youth Theatre, he was Mr. Punch in Mary Poppins and Featured Ensemble in The Wizard of Oz. He was Freddy and swung for Billy and Tommy in Carrie with Open Book Theatre Company. He was the Mad Hatter with Lighthouse Players, and Aladdin, Prince Charming, and Kaa with Vista Broadway Theatre. He sang as a Gala Soloist for Moonlight Stage Productions in 2022 and 2023.

He won the 2023 International Thespy Award for Solo Musical Theatre Performance, earned Superior rankings in both California and International Thespys in 2024, and took three CETA Merit Awards for An Enemy of the People. He trained with Frank Meeley at Ascend Music Studios and with Mackenzie Scott of Thespian Troupe 4556.

But the performing arts are only part of him.

Ethan was also a writer. In 2024 and 2025, he was selected as a student blogger for BroadwayWorld, where he wrote monthly columns for one of the country's largest theatre publications. He didn't use that platform for himself — he used it to advocate. He wrote about funding inequity in school arts programs. He wrote about the creative process and what it costs young artists when budgets get cut. He wrote about being kind to yourself when you fall short of your own standards. He titled one of his pieces Funding for the Arts and closed it with a line that became a compass for everything that came after:

"When in doubt, advocate."

In another piece he wrote, "The arts may not be for everyone, but we want them to be accessible to everyone." And in another: "The arts is a safe space for me to create and to be who I am." He understood, at seventeen, what most adults in arts education spend careers trying to articulate — that talent isn't the bottleneck, money is. And he wasn't willing to be quiet about it.

At home, Ethan adored his younger brother Blake. He went to Blake’s baseball games, rode behind him on long dune rides, shared a bed with him for years, looked out for him, gave him advice, and loved being a big brother. He loved family time — vacations, holidays, meals together, shows — and was easygoing in a way that naturally unified different perspectives.

With friends, classmates, and castmates — in ASB, leadership, theatre, and safety patrol — he gave the same way. He loved the time spent together, brought people together, and wanted to contribute.

The Live Like Ethan Arts Foundation exists to carry on his work. To honor him. To never let his name or his light be forgotten. And to do the thing Ethan was already doing on the page: getting funding, resources, and opportunities to the young theatre artists who need it most. Every scholarship awarded, every program funded, every student lifted up is Ethan, continuing.

He loved making people smile. He believed performing was a way of giving magic back to the world. He believed every young artist deserved a fair shot at the stage.

We intend to live like Ethan.

Explore Ethan's full resume, headshot, and press archive at ethanramoss.weebly.com.

The Live Like Ethan Arts Foundation is a California 501(c)(3) nonprofit, founded by Ethan's family to carry forward the work he was already doing — advocating for the young theatre artists who get left behind when arts funding falls short.

Ethan understood that talent isn't the bottleneck. Money is. He wrote about it openly in his BroadwayWorld columns, and he believed, fiercely, that no student with a real passion for the stage should lose their chance because the resources weren't there. The foundation exists to make sure they don't.

Why We Exist

The foundation rests on three commitments. They guide every decision we make.

One. Honor Ethan's memory.

We will never forget Ethan, and we will never let the world forget him either. His name, his story, and his belief in the magic of the stage live on through every scholarship awarded, every program supported, and every young artist whose path is lifted by the work we do in his honor. The foundation that bears his name exists, first and always, to keep his light shining and to share who he was with the generations of performers still to come.

Two. Extend Ethan's passion and advocacy for the arts.

Ethan was a passionate champion for the arts, and he didn't keep quiet about it. He wrote about it in his BroadwayWorld columns. He spoke up for it. He believed deeply that every passionate young artist deserves the chance to reach their dream — and the resources to get there. We carry that work forward — championing the arts, celebrating live theatre, and lifting the young performers and programs that bring it to life. A cornerstone of that effort is Stage Finder, our theatre discovery platform at shows.live-like-ethan.com, which invites audiences across Southern California and beyond to find shows, fill seats, and rally behind their local stages — because every ticket sold and every performance that finds its audience strengthens the entire arts community Ethan so loved.

Three. Channel generosity into real opportunities for students and programs.

Through the generosity of supporters who share our belief in the power of the arts, we award scholarships and fund the schools, drama departments, and community theatre programs that develop the next generation of artists. Donors are warmly invited to share their wishes and preferences for how their gifts are used, and we honor those intentions wherever we can — with final award decisions thoughtfully guided by the Board to ensure each gift reaches where it can do the most good. We steward every contribution through a remarkably efficient platform — built on lean technology, careful operations, and disciplined oversight — so the greatest possible share of every dollar reaches a student, a stage, or a program.

The platform is the engine. Advocacy is the heart. Funded students and thriving programs are the legacy.