What's Happening in Cougar Country

In a moment of downtime in Health class one day, the students were Googling each other to see what would come up. They’d search for one name after another. 

Then came freshman Ethan Monaghan (St. Paschal Baylon). 

“Wait! You’re famous,” Ethan said he remembers them saying. “I told them I wasn’t famous. If someone saw me walking down the street, they wouldn’t know who I am.”

Well, if a blue elephant is walking down the street, most students and anyone else would certainly know Dr. Seuss’s Horton. So, in a sense, they would know who Ethan is.

Ethan is Horton.

On Monday, October 6, 2025, Netflix released the first seven episodes of Dr. Seuss’s Horton! - bringing the beloved elephant back to the screen in a brand-new animated series. 

Ethan technically isn’t a blue elephant, but Horton is voiced by Ethan.

“I auditioned for the show in early 2024, got a call-back, and then got the job,” he said. “From February 2024 until April of 2025, I recorded an episode a week for 40 weeks and then had 30 more weeks of pickups.” Pickups are re-recordings of a small portion of an audio project, like a single sentence or phrase, rather than the entire script.

According to an article by Common Sense Media, “Dr. Seuss's Horton! is a preschool animated series based on Dr. Seuss' classic Horton Hears a Who. Here, the animals are younger and cuter versions of the book characters, living in harmony in the Jungle of Nool. Horton is an optimistic elephant who, alongside his sidekick/best friend, Samson, is eager to help anyone in need. Their challenges start small—like rescuing a kite or finding a birthday cake—but quickly turn into imaginative adventures where they fly on leaf airplanes or get catapulted using a slinky toy.”

Despite his mom, new Lake Catholic Performing Arts Director Kelly Monaghan, turning her home office into a studio and their basement allowing for more video recordings, Netflix rented studio space at Breakthrough Studios in Valley View for those 70+ weeks where he would record the episodes while on Zoom with the show’s writers, designers, and voice directors. The show isn’t recorded like a traditional live-action production where the actors are all together. In fact, he said, he would have the script so he could see what the lines were before and after his lines, just so he could judge the tone, inflection, and emotion of each of his lines.

“It’s funny, Horton’s best friend is Samson, and I never met him,” Ethan said. “I waved hello to him once on a Zoom, but that was it.”

Although the first seven episodes of Horton! have been released, Netflix has not announced when the rest will come out yet. In the meantime, while Ethan is waiting for his next opportunity on the screen, he said he plans to continue to be involved with the Heights Youth Theatre in University Heights. 

“I really enjoy all parts of acting – the singing, dancing, whatever,” Ethan said. “But I do prefer acting over the voice work.”

Last Christmas, he starred as Ralphie in A Christmas Story at the Allen Theater in downtown Cleveland. Rehearsals started in September for the December run and ramped up as the show neared, working for 12 hours or more that final week before it opened. Then it was three weeks, consisting of 24 shows – one each on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and two shows each on Saturday and Sunday.

“That was a lot. We only had Mondays off,” Ethan said. “And I would have loved to go back this year, but I’m too old now. You have to be 13 (years old) or younger. So, I miss all my friends who were in it last year. They’re all back again, but, unfortunately, I’m too old now.”

As his career continues to evolve, Ethan said he’s up for any opportunity but would prefer to get away from the voice work in children’s shows and move on to something more his own age range. Besides Horton, he’s also voiced Kyle, a polar bear friend of Goofy, in Mickey Mouse Funhouse, and George, a kindergarten friend of Kotaro, in the English version of Kotaro Lives Alone.

“I want to work on something with kids my own age,” he said. “In my perfect world, I’d love to be on the Outer Banks, or a show like that.”

Ethan is no stranger to “live acting” on television or the big screen, so a move like that wouldn’t be too daunting. He said he’s been in 8-10 commercials. He’s credited for his part in Sweet Girl, a 2021 movie starring Jason Momoa, although his scene was cut. He was also in three episodes of season two of Manhunt, which premiered in 2020. The season followed the hunt for Eric Rudolph, who was the perpetrator of the Centennial Olympic Park bombing. 

“I was in Pittsburgh shooting Manhunt,” he said. “That’s a lot of waiting around for your scenes. So, I had a tutor on set. She was more of a teacher and just kept me on track with my schoolwork.”

Now that his part of Horton! is done, Ethan is just a high school student walking the Lake Catholic halls. Although his previous commitments are keeping him from taking part in the Performing Arts Department’s Fall Play – Peter and the Starcatcher – he didn’t rule out helping with the show in some capacity or joining one of the casts in the future.

“I don’t know if I’ll take part in the fall play or spring musical. We’ll have to see what my schedule is like when those shows audition,” he said. “In the meantime, with this show just starting, I might come in and help with tech or the lights or something like that.”

Whenever that next part comes, Ethan will be ready to continue on his path. He said he wants to go to college in New York or Los Angeles. And eventually end up permanently in LA, where he can act forever.

For the next 3+ years though, Lake Catholic will be his home.

“Everyone here is so welcoming and understanding of what my goals are,” he said. “The teachers are all willing to listen and give me any help I might need.

“Lake Catholic allows me to be able to do what I love and still get a great education at the same time.”