The last 10 years have been something of a whirlwind for Alex Newell, at least from the outside looking in. The actor-singer-everything man went from competing on the reality television show The Glee Project for a part on Ryan Murphy’s hit series Glee, to a major role on NBC’s Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist—with a not-so-minor stop on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning and Grammy-nominated musical Once on This Island—all before his 28th birthday.

“I don’t see anything in time,” he tells me over the phone from his New York apartment, marveling at the decade that’s passed. “Looking back, I don’t think that it’s been that long. I’ve done everything, but I don’t feel that I’ve done everything that I’ve wanted to do.”

Despite being first runner-up on The Glee Project, he still landed a two-episode role on the show’s third season as Unique, a trans teen with an unparalleled voice. The role grew, eventually making Newell a main and popular cast member through to the series’ end three seasons later in 2015. That role led him to collaborate with a number of musicians, including Clean Bandit and electro duo Blonde, before going on tour with Adam Lambert and releasing his own original music. Then came the opportunity to play one of his dream theatre roles: Asaka, Mother of the Earth, in the Broadway revival of Once on This Island.

“I think of it as an uphill battle of not knowing what the hell I’ve been doing and just making things up as I go and making them work,” the Massachusetts native says. “The one thing that’s kept me going for 10 years is I’m willing to learn everything.” Read more via Xtra