Ele Bardha has been thrown off the Belle Isle bridge upside down, blind-folded, and shackled; on several occasions, he has been lit on fire. As a stuntman, Ele endures beatings and burnings – much like his hometown Detroit – a city that once represented the American dream.

Detroit’s burned and dilapidated ruins are now inspiring artists, musicians, and filmmakers to flock to the city flaring an artistic, entrepreneurial renaissance. Most significant in the emergence of this creative sphere is Michigan’s movie industry – of which Ele Bardha is a glowing example. A byproduct of his Detroit upbringing, and his own internal flame, Ele exemplifies the versatility and buoyancy required to overcome the region’s tumultuous times.

After leaving home for Hollywood, at nineteen, Ele followed the typical struggling actor’s path doing numerous small film and commercial roles. He even gave New York City’s stage a try before deciding to return to Michigan. “When you go to L.A. or New York,” he says, “at some point you have to say whether it’s either worked out – or it hasn’t.”

Ele’s experience in L.A. and N.Y. was not for a lack of talent, as a lot of it truly is “who you know,” says Ele. “A big reason why I wasn’t getting the jobs I wanted was that there were so many people, I couldn’t even get to the audition. Out of a thousand guys, so many factors go into why they’ll pick somebody over picking me.”

Returning to Michigan, Ele’s IMDB resume has now caught fire together with Detroit filmmaking.  “I’m fortunate to be one of the top stunt drivers in Michigan, where in L.A. there are twenty guys like me that can do the same tricks,” says Ele.

As an actor, stuntman, and stunt coordinator, Ele is a poster child for the opportunities in Michigan’s film scene.  Some of his most recent film credits include: actor (Conviction, Game of Death, S.W.A.T. Firefight, Salvation Boulevard, Street Kings: Motor City, Jinn); and stunts / stunt coordination (Vanishing on 7th Street, Trust, Game of Death, Salvation Boulevard, Red Dawn, Cedar Rapids, Highland Park, Restitution, Hostel III, The Double, Jinn, Vamps, A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas, Street Kings: Motor City, Real Steel, Machine Gun Preacher).  Some of these recent acting credits include working alongside Hillary Swank, Cuba Gooding Jr., Sam Rockwell, Richard Gere, Jennifer Connelly, Marisa Tomei, and  Minnie Driver.

“I benefit greatly from being able to be an actor and also being a stunt person. Sometimes a movie will need a performer that not only is doing a stunt, but also has lines.  A lot of the roles that I get I’m actually acting and doing the stunt at the same time, saving the production money.” says Ele.

As Detroit’s film scene heated up, Ele teamed up with Detroit-based Superior Stunts (Dan Lemieux), and the two began to coordinate stunts for many of the incoming productions. Ele and Dan’s stunt coordination is featured in Machine Gun Preacher  with Gerard Butler, in which Ele is Butler’s stunt double. He has also recently doubled for Hayden Christensen (Vanishing on 7th Street), Ed Helms (Cedar Rapids), and Jason Gedrick (War Flowers).

For Ele, the question of “which comes first” between stuntman and actor is not as elusive as the chicken or the egg – the answer is neither. “Doing stunts and acting is the same thing to me – it’s performing, whether I’m performing something crazy or something with dialogue. I’ll be doing this until the day I die – I’ll be standing with one foot in the casket, and one on a banana peel.”

The success he enjoys today in the Michigan movie world complements his past achievements as a national go-cart champion, racecar driver, and inventor. “When I was young, I wanted to do everything,” he says. “My mom would always say, ‘Pick one thing, Ele. Are you gonna be a skateboarder, a BMXer, or a racecar driver?’ I personally don’t like to corner myself with one decision…I tell people who say they want to get involved in the movie industry but don’t know what they want to do to try everything.”

Like Detroit, Ele is experiencing a renaissance in his career thanks to the Michigan film tax incentive and the booming industry it has brought to his home state. “I have been able to make the kinds of connections I have never been able to make - with that door being always closed in Los Angeles or New York. I would always be outside, looking through the window thinking, ‘God, I wish I could get in there.’ Now, that door not only has been cracked open for me to take a look inside, but I’m in the room. I have a bird’s eye view of exactly what’s happening in the movie industry.”

“The film incentive has opened the acting door, it’s opened the stunt door – because of those two things, I’ve met people now in the business that have opened the production door.” Bardha recently earned his first producer credit in Seven Days in Utopia, a film starring Robert Duvall. “In the future I could potentially be producing a movie that I would be acting and doing stunts in,” laughs Ele.

Whether or not the flame in Detroit and Ele’s future will remain fueled by Michigan’s film incentive is yet to be determined – but one can’t argue against the benefits that changing perceptions, doing it yourself (D.I.Y.), and artistic reform, are bringing to the city of Detroit. Outsiders are starting to take more and more notice.