Marc Elliot

Life and career

Marc Elliot was born in 1985 in St. Louis. He was diagnosed with Hirschsprung's disease, a rare intestinal disease, at birth. A series of operations left him with only 4 feet of small intestines. Elliot claims he was diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome at the age of 9.

On August 11, 2002, sixteen-year-old Elliot was returning home from camp via Greyhound bus when he repeatedly shouted an anti-black racial slur at black passengers. While the driver was aware of his condition, Elliot was ejected from the bus. The incident was covered by local news station WTHR. Elliot made his first presentation at Clayton High School.

In 2008, he graduated from Washington University in St. Louis. After graduation, he began a career as a motivational speaker. In 2011, Campus Magazine named Elliot the winner of the best speaker and best diversity artist of the year. In 2013, Elliot self-published What Makes You Tic? My Journey From Tourette's To Tolerance.

Role in NXIVM

In 2010, Elliot was recruited into Executive Success Programs (ESP), a self-help program founded by Keith Raniere, leader of the pseudoscientific NXIVM movement, which has been described as a cult and a criminal organization. By 2011, Elliot began claiming that NXIVM had taught him to 'overcome' Tourette's. By 2014, he had discontinued his public speaking tour to focus full-time on being a 'proctor' in NXIVM. Also in 2014, Elliot married Canadian NXIVM member Maja Miljkovic to help obtain a work visa for her; the marriage ended following an investigation by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

From 2010 to 2017, NXIVM member and medical doctor Brandon Porter performed unlicensed 'human subject research' on more than 200 subjects across a variety of projects. Elliot was involved with one project Porter oversaw, which sought to treat Tourette's. From 2015 to 2018, Elliot produced and starred in a film promoting NXIVM techniques for Tourette's; it was released in 2018 under the title My Tourette's. In 2019, Porter's medical license was revoked for violation of 40 state and federal regulations, including his role overseeing 'research'.

Prosecutors wrote that 'the participants in this study have expressed significant distress at their involvement' and offered one victim impact statement from a study participant who said the study 'did nothing for me except ruin my self-esteem, ruin my mental health, and made me hate myself. It did not cure my Tourette’s in any way.' In 2018, NXIVM leadership was arrested and later convicted of sex trafficking, forced labor, and racketeering. Raniere was sentenced to 120 years imprisonment.

In 2020, Elliot helped form 'Make Justice Blind', an organization of loyal Raniere followers offering a monetary challenge to exonerate Raniere on both his sex trafficking and forced labor charges. In September 2020, Elliot spoke out in defense of Raniere in an interview with CBS News This Morning. In February 2023, Elliot appeared on the H3 Podcast, presented by Ethan Klein of h3h3Productions, to defend Raniere. Klein, who himself is diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome, accused Elliot of faking his Tourette's, and disputed Elliot's claims of Raniere's innocence.

In October 2021, Elliot filed a $12 million lawsuit against Lions Gate Entertainment, alleging the Starz network documentary series Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult libelled and defamed him. In November 2022, the court dismissed the lawsuit and granted Lions Gate Entertainment's request for attorneys' fees and costs. The judge found that the documentary did 'imply that Plaintiff was a devoted member of an organization whose leader has been implicated in a range of serious sexual crimes, but this assertion – however unflattering – is substantially true.'