Austin Scott has had an incredible acting journey. The 2011 Benicia High School graduate has gone from starring in advertisements at the age of 8 to being cast in the title role in “Hamilton” for the smash hit musical’s national tour.

“It’s a dream come true,” Scott said of his role.

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony Award-winning hip-hop musical about the life of America’s first treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton, debuted on Broadway in 2015 and began its first national tour last year. Scott is succeeding Michael Luwoye, who starred in the original touring production and is now playing the same role in the Broadway version.

Scott first caught the acting bug at a young age when he and his mother passed by a John Robert Powers performance academy which was offering acting classes.

“I just kind of looked up at her and said ‘I want to do that,’” he said. “She took me in, and that day we signed up for acting classes.”

Scott would go on to star in commercials for brands such as Chia Pet and Invisalign. He took a bit of a break from acting but remained involved with the performing arts at Benicia High, where he was on the Varsity Improv team for all four years and played Gaston in the school’s production of “Beauty and the Beast” his senior year. He remained involved with acting when he attended San Francisco State University, appearing in independent and short films and having a co-starring role in Diablo Theatre Company’s Stars 2000 Teen Theatre production of “Rent” in 2012. Scott continued to get roles when he moved to Los Angeles and even more when he moved to New York, including a gig as Benny in Ithaca company Hangar Theatre’s production of Miranda’s “In the Heights.”

Scott initially applied for “Hamilton” a year ago when he auditioned for a variety of roles, including George Washington and the dual role of Thomas Jefferson and Marquis de Lafayette. He even received a string of callbacks where he auditioned in front of Miranda and the rest of the creative team. Ultimately, they decided he was too young to portray Washington and not the proper fit for Jefferson/Lafayette.

“They said, ‘Not yet, but we like him,’” Scott said.

Finally, about four months ago, Scott was called in for a work session for the role of Hamilton, the first time he had applied for that role.

“I worked through about five of the songs with some of the assistant creative team, and they brought me in for Alex Lacamoire and Tommy Kail and Jeffrey Seller and all the producers,” he said. “I probably had two or three callbacks, and then I got the call.”

Scott made his debut as Hamilton at the San Diego Civic Theatre on Jan. 6, where it will be performed through Jan. 28. It will then move to Tempe, Ariz. on Jan. 30 and will then move on to Denver, St. Louis, Houston, Atlanta, Washington, D.C. and finally Boston. Scott said that although “Hamilton” is much larger than any other production he has been a part of, the cast and crew are very tight-knit.

“It’s a family,” he said. “Every single person I’ve worked with, from the directors to the cast members to the stage management, has been genuinely good. They’ve been so welcoming, so warm and so nurturing and supportive and incredibly communicative. It’s just been amazing.”

Scott has been a fan of “Hamilton” ever since he first saw it in New York, and describes the role as one of the most complex he has ever done.

“Lin once described it as being like a 14-course meal because you get to go through everything,” he said. “You get to age and you get to go through scandal and you get to become the treasury secretary of the new nation and you get to have a son and lose a son. You go through so much.”

Scott is especially a fan of the story and how the play has a racially diverse cast.

“It tells an important story with a cast that looks like what America looks like now,” he said. “You just don’t see that much on Broadway or necessarily anywhere in the entertainment industry these days.”

Scott has been grateful for the role and said he has gotten a lot of positive comments from friends in Benicia.

“I’ve been getting a lot of support from people back home in Benicia and the Bay Area, and it means the world to me,” he said.

Seeing the incredibly enthusiastic crowds has reinforced for Scott that “Hamilton” can be a positive force in a turbulent world.

“This show means so much to people, and it’s changing the world in a lot of ways,” he said. “It is this bright light of hope in this world where there’s a lot of darkness.”