Nelsan Ellis Biography

Fast Facts

• Spent part of his childhood in Bessemer, AL, before returning to his native Illinois for high school
• Credited two high school teachers---Tim Sweeney and Bill Kirksey---with steering him toward the performing arts
• Got hooked on acting as a freshman after Sweeney cast him as Junie in a production of George C
• Wolfe's play The Colored Museum
• Wrote UGLy, a play about domestic violence, after his sister Alice was murdered by her husband
• The play won the Lincoln Center's Martin E
• Segal Award
• Was a year ahead of True Blood costar Rutina Wesley at Juilliard
• Wrote, executive produced and starred in Trespass (2005), one of five finalists for the 2006 HBO Short Film Award at the American Black Film Festival (ABFF)