Avan Jogia Weathered Teen Stardom. Now He Reveals How it 'Dramatically' Changed His Life in New BookAutopsy(Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Avan Jogia.Photo:Peter Don

Peter Don

The years that followed saw the Canadian actor, now 33, pursuing a range of creative endeavors — making music, starring in the Gregg Araki seriesNow Apocalypse, making his directorial debut with 2022’s neo-noir thrillerDoor Mouseand even writing his first collection of poetry in 2019 —Mixed Feelings— about the experience of being “between two worlds” as a mixed-race person.

Now, Jogia is back with his second bookAutopsy(out now from Gallery Books) — an “introspective” collection of poetry through a lens of cultural criticism that details sex, heartbreak, depression and teen stardom. “It’s more self-dissection back then when I was on teen television,” the actor told PEOPLE. “But then also an introspection and self-dissection of where I’m at now as a person — the sort of comparing of these two people.”

Jogia was able to be such a keen observer because he “wasn’t such a big teen idol that I felt like I couldn’t also see it for what it was and what was happening,” he said. “I was places that I probably wouldn’t have been if I wasn’t participating, but also [I was] not participating enough to be wrapped up and drowning in the world. So it became the sort of duality of those two things.”

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Jogia opens up about writingAutopsy, his forthcoming role in the Amazon seriesObsessionwithDove Cameronand his relationship with fame now.

‘Autopsy’ book cover.Simon & Schuster

Simon & Schuster

How long did you take to write these poems?

I write poems every day. I’m writing constantly. But I’ve been writing since I was 15 years old and around the time I started on [Victorious]. So, it was just a case of collecting poems from then and supplementing and adding around them for context. It’s taken me 10 years to write this book, but [the theme] didn’t reveal itself until maybe two years ago, a year ago. And then it started to take shape for me. Poetry for me is the most immediate form of artistic expression. So I just write and write, and I don’t know what the thing’s going to be, and then it sort of amalgams into a shape or a collection — or it doesn’t, which is fine, too.

Specifically, what made you want to write this book?

It became sort of a curiosity of how best to tell that version of that story. And I had already been sitting on all these poems. The next thing was just filling in the blanks of what it was like for me during that time. I was in this weird place ofbeinga heartthrob, but [it was] not so big and all-encompassing that it took over my life. I was able to observe. I kind of always considered myself first and foremost before anything else to be a sort of journalist.

Why was it important to start the book with the poem “Autopsia”?

Basically the beginning of this for me was the idea of the death of this version of myself. Because it’s impossible to be 32 years old and be a teen heartthrob, it’s not possible. So, I think I started with the idea that “this is dead.” And then, so if that’s the case, then what is this book? It’s an autopsy of a thing. It’s looking at what something was and the experience of living that very particular, very weird world, probably the last age of children’s television — we were the last class, realistically — and observing it, cutting it open and taking a look inside. It became like self-autopsy.

There are several poems that grapple with suicidal thoughts and ideation. What was it like writing about such a vulnerable topic?

Well, I think being alive is complicated, and I think that if you are alive, and you are conscious and aware and present, being alive is exhausting and painful. A lot of poetry seems to me to be about reflecting on your trauma. And that’s not what this book is to me, even though we dance into darker places. Life is absurd first, for me, before it’s depressing. I don’t think of writing poetry as healing. I think my poetry is better when it’s observing and discovering as opposed to trying to fix and heal.

Avan Jogia in March 2009.Getty

Getty

Throughout the book, there are a few poems about trysts with older women when you were a young adult. How do do you look back on that time now?

It’s interesting to be in a position of being a young man in this situation and be in those dynamics. I think you retain your power a little bit more naturally as a man in those situations. And I think when you’re a young man, specifically — and a journalist and a detective and an observer — there’s a lot of roaming around the world, discovering. The idea of being with somebody who’s older than you is probably an act of curiosity about the world. Being in your 20s, I think that whole section of your life is an act of curiosity.

There’s a section of the book where you describe how yourJ-14shoots happened at a house where gay porn was shot on opposite days and hint about a connection there. Were you just observing that was an interesting dichotomy?

I think the connection’s poetic. I mean, very specifically, in the first line is “before all the sort of conspiracy theorists and psychopaths jump out of with the woodwork.” I mean, it’s just such a lazy comparison, and it’s not always true all the time, but I think it was more interesting to be photographed in a place like that. The comparison was more poetic than functional.

I think that’s a funny TikTok that a lot of people got really excited about and carried away with. Look, we live in a world right now that is so absolutely inundated with conspiracy, and it sells magazines, it sells books. I think that people want to believe more than is true.

Truly what it was, the answer to that video, is I was 19 years old in a new city, and my mom had ovarian cancer. So, she had to go back to Vancouver, and I was on my own in Los Angeles. When you’re 19, on your own in Los Angeles and you have an apartment and a car, as a poor person having money for the first time, you’re like, “Well, let’s find out about life.” That’s sort of where most of that came from. I can’t say with any kind of confidence that it’s not something that kids do when they go away to college. If you ask most 24-year-olds what they did from the ages of 19 to 23 in college, most of them are like, “I don’t know. I partied a lot.” That’s sort of what happened.

What helped you survive teen stardom?

What’s funny, too, is I always just wanted to be involved in the movies and films, and when you’re 15, the only thing they’ll let you do is act. They won’t let you direct a movie. They don’t let you write a movie. They’ll let you act, though. And so as a young man wanting to be involved in the movies and wanting to get into it and being able to act, being accepted and getting on a big show, that becomes your life. But you always have to wonder what would be the case if that hadn’t have happened. I think of it as a happening that has changed my life dramatically, and there’s good and bad with any kind of change.

Avan Jogia in December 2010.Brian To/FilmMagic

Brian To/FilmMagic

What’s the most vulnerable part ofAutopsyfor you?

I think the most vulnerable part of the book is talking about what it’s like to be commodified and seen as someone without any density or an internal world. When you’re seen as an object or a fantasy, it erases the reality. I have idols myself. I have people I looked up to when I was a kid, and I’ve met some of them and I haven’t met others. I met some of them, and it ruined it. It was better for me for them to be idols than it was to meet them and get to know them as people. But now that I’ve been in that position, I’d much rather be known as a person than a fantasy or something to fantasize onto.

The most vulnerable parts of the book are me having that experience as I mosey around the world — having people sort of project their version or fantasy onto who I should be or how I should be. And that’s something that happens with “teen idol worship” [that] you can’t replicate, really.

Which types of projects are you most interested in pursuing?

What attracted you to the showObsession?

I am a big fan of those sort of psychosexual thrillers of the ’90s. I think it’s a great genre of film. It’s a genre that we don’t get all that much of — something that was a thriller and sexy. Also, the character I’m playing, Oliver, he’s a really complicated guy. I get to take a character and figure out what kind of person he is and help the audience figure out what kind of person he is. Playing a morally ambiguous person is fun, because it allows you so much leeway, That was a really fun collaborative process with bothDove Cameron, who plays opposite me, and also the creatives. If you liked [my show]Twisted, this is also a show that you would enjoy.

Avan Jogia in September 2021.Daniele Venturelli/WireImage

Daniele Venturelli/WireImage

What was your experience working with Dove been like?

Dove’s amazing. She’s so talented, committed and professional. Both of us were really committed to the sort of telling of the story, the kind of craft of telling the story. She was really lovely to work with and a breeze. It’s cool that she’s also a multi-hyphenate, as well. It’s nice to work with people who kind ofget itin that capacity, too. Like we do acting, she does music, I direct films. I’m excited for people to see what she did with this part and what she did with this role, and I’m excited to see people see her in this.

What’s your relationship to fame like now?

That’s the big question, right? I find it to be a currency that I think is possibly losing value, just generally. It’s like, I have a bunch of money in a country whose GDP is crashing. I’ve only ever been interested in that idea of fame as a way of being able to get my art out to more people.

Autopsyis on sale now, wherever books are sold.

source: people.com