Nelsan Ellis biography

Synopsis

Younger Years

Born in 1978 in Harvey, Illinois, Nelsan Ellis moved to Bessemer, Alabama, when he was 6 years old, following the divorce of his parents. Ellis and his siblings—"about eight, give or take," the actor has said—were raised in poverty and became wards of the state, moving constantly from relative to relative while also dealing with the day-to-day difficulties of being black in the deep South: "It was hell," Ellis later said of the experience. "You go back to my town, it's like going back to the 1960s just not a great place to grow up."

Luckily for Ellis, his mother, aunts and grandmother were all there to support him through his difficult childhood: "They were strong women. They told me if I wanted to do something, to be something, I had to make it happen." It was also in this poor, rural town in Alabama where tragedy struck Ellis's family: His sister was murdered by her husband in a horrific episode of domestic violence in 2004. "She was pregnant, and my brother-in-law shot her point-blank with a sawed-off shotgun in front of my six-year-old nephew," he later explained of the horrible event, which rocked the family and deeply scarred Ellis, who subsequently decided to leave Alabama in pursuit of a better life.

Early Theater Career

At the age of 14, Nelsan Ellis moved back to Illinois to attend high school, living with his aunt in a neighborhood near his father's house. A good athlete with no thought of becoming an actor, Ellis was persuaded by his teachers to take the role of Junie in the play The Colored Museum. Though he had become hooked on acting by the time he graduated, Ellis joined the U.S. Marine Corps and spent some time in the military. However, his love of acting proved too strong to ignore and he eventually enrolled in the prestigious Juilliard School in New York City to study drama.

While at Juilliard, Ellis penned his first stage play, Ugly, a story of "unconditional love and how it masks a multitude of sins," according to the actor. Based on the horrific murder of his sister, Ugly sheds light on the overlooked problem of domestic violence in families. For the dark and provocative work, Ellis won the Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award. He would spend the next seven years immersed in the world of the stage and drama before making his screen debut in 2005.

'True Blood'

Following appearances in a number of small television roles, Nelsan Ellis achieved breakout success in 2008, when he took the part of Lafayette on the hit HBO vampire series True Blood. While Lafayette is a small, relatively unimportant and one-dimensional character in Charlaine Harris's book series of the same name, True Blood director Alan Ball worked with Ellis to bring complexity and intrigue to the TV version of the character.