When Point Park University alumnus E. Clayton Cornelious won a role in the Pittsburgh Playhouse’s production of “Brigadoon” in 1995, he knew he was doing something right. As an African-American playing the role of a Scottish groom, Cornelious knew the atypical casting choice was a reflection on his talent. “I felt like I really was talented. I really was doing something if I was getting cast in a nontraditional role in college,” said Cornelious in a phone interview on Friday.Little did he know that eighteen years later, the 1998 musical theatre graduate would be a seasoned professional performing in Pittsburgh once again as one of the leads in the national tour of “Sister Act.”Just four months into its first national tour, “Sister Act” will be performed at the Benedum Center for Performing Arts Downtown Feb. 5-10.But before the 36-year-old had a resume that boasted six Broadway shows and eight national tours, plus regional theater, TV and film credits, Cornelious started out as a Pittsburgh kid who loved to perform.As a child growing up in Rankin, Pa., he dreamed of one day becoming an actor and even attended the same “Mickey Mouse Club” audition as future superstar Christina Aguilera.Cornelious attended Woodland Hills High School, where he played five different instruments for the concert and marching bands, participated in the choir, and acted in the school’s musicals. He also took acting and tap classes at the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera (CLO) Academy.Despite applying to the University of Pittsburgh and Slippery Rock University for business and to Duquesne University for music education, a trip to a show at the Pittsburgh Playhouse made his college decision easy.”I can remember watching…the production, and thinking, ‘this is what I want to do,’ and I think that’s what made me want to go to Point Park,” Cornelious said.As a musical theatre student, Cornelious honed his acting, singing and dancing skills through the various performance opportunities that Point Park provided during his college career.Performing the role of Charlie Dalrymple in “Brigadoon” at the Pittsburgh Playhouse is one of his favorite college memories. He also had the chance to perform as a dancer with the Pittsburgh Pops Orchestra and Marvin Hamlisch as a Point Park student—an opportunity that gave him professional dance experience. He credits his versatility and success to Point Park’s strong emphasis on training all performing arts students in acting, singing and dance.”[Point Park] was a perfect mix in the way that we had to do a little bit of everything, and I think that’s what you need when you go to New York,” Cornelious said. “You can’t just be strong in one genre anymore. You have to be well-rounded, and I think Point Park really comes out with having well-rounded people—basically triple-threats.”During college, Cornelious began auditioning for various productions in New York while finishing his musical theatre degree. He recieved a role in a nonunion tour of “The Wiz,” which led to another job in a national tour of “A Chorus Line” that took him through to his college graduation in 1998.”Since I was 19-years-old, I’ve worked constantly. There’s not a time I ever stopped working, going from show to show or even TV work and national commercials,” Cornelious said.A call from his agent in the summer of 1999 brought Cornelious the news that he had landed a job as the standby for all the male roles in a Broadway show called “Kat and the Kings.””I couldn’t believe it. I think I fell to my knees with the phone, and then I called my mom right away,” Cornelious said.He had been watching the six-person show from the wings for a just a week-and- a-half when one of the actors could no longer perform. Without having had any rehearsals, Cornelious had to perform in the show the very next afternoon.Cornelious stepped up to the challenge, receiving applause from the audience as well as the show’s producers, directors and cast members backstage after his first whirlwind debut on a Broadway stage.”I think that’s what sort of put my stamp in New York,” he said of the experience.The next 15 years brought a nonstop mix of Broadway shows, national tours, regional theater, and TV and movie opportunities.His full and varied resume features some of his all-time favorite productions, including the Broadway revival of “A Chorus Line” in 2006, the show that had officially started his professional career a decade earlier, and “Wonderland” in 2011, where he performed his “big breakout role on Broadway” as the Caterpillar.