Surprisingly he paints one treading the boards (8)

I believe the answer is:

thespian

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'one treading the boards' is the definition.
The answer is a person as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.

'surprisingly he paints' is the wordplay.
'surprisingly' is an anagram indicator (a surprising ordering of the letters).
'he'+'paints'='hepaints'
'hepaints' with letters rearranged gives 'THESPIAN'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for thespian that I've seen before include "Actor - neat hips (anag)" , "Theatrical performer" , "stage performer" , "Stage actor" , "A formal actor" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.