Early life and education

Ellis was born in Harvey, Illinois, near Chicago. When Ellis and his siblings were younger, their mother, a single parent after her divorce from her children's father, broke down over the death of her brother. Ellis and his siblings became wards of the state as a result. They were then raised in Bessemer, Alabama, by their grandmother. In Alabama, Ellis attended Jess Lanier High School for a year, then transferred to McAdory High School. He moved back to Illinois at age 15, where he lived with his maternal aunt, and in 1997 he graduated from Thornridge High School in Dolton, Illinois.

He joined the United States Marines at the age of 17, but quit not long afterwards. When Ellis was 21, he was accepted for enrollment at the Juilliard School's Drama Division (Group 33: 2000-2004) where he befriended True Blood-colleague Rutina Wesley (Group 34: 2001-2005). Ellis earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Juilliard in 2004.

Prior to his transfer to Juilliard, Ellis attended Illinois State University, where he was a National Champion in Duo Interpretation, among other successes, at the National Forensic Association national tournament.

Career

In 2007, Ellis was cast as Lafayette Reynolds on the pilot for True Blood, a short order cook at Merlotte's, a drug dealer, a member of Jason Stackhouse's road crew, and Tara Thornton's cousin. The pilot was shot in the early summer of 2007 and was officially ordered to series in August. Production on the series began later that fall.

In casting, Alan Ball had concerns that the character's sexuality would be a dominating trait, "because you don't want to bring in someone who's going to play that in a phony way". Nelsan Ellis says that it took him a few episodes to find the character. Ellis says that he based many of Lafayette's mannerisms on his mother and his sister, and that the costuming also helps him get into character.

I have more makeup on than any of the females in the cast. Once they get me with the fake eyelashes and the eye makeup, I listen to some Rihanna and I'm there.

— Nelsan Ellis, The Philadelphia Inquirer

The series premiered on September 7, 2008 and concluded on August 24, 2014, comprising seven seasons and 80 episodes. In 2008, Ellis received a Satellite Award from the International Press Academy for best supporting actor in a television series for his role as Lafayette Reynolds'. In 2009, he was nominated for a Scream Award for "Best Supporting Actor" for True Blood.

In 2012, Ellis was cast as Martin Luther King, Jr. in a supporting performance in Lee Daniels' The Butler. The Butler received mostly positive reviews from critics, with a 71% rating on the film critic aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, based on 171 reviews.

On October 21, 2013, Ellis joined the cast of Get on Up (film), a biographical drama film about the life of singer James Brown. He portrayed Bobby Byrd, Brown's long-time friend. Get on Up was met with positive reviews from critics. The film currently has a rating of 80% on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, based on 150 reviews, with an average rating of 6.8/10.

Awards & Nominations

• While at Juilliard, Ellis wrote a semi-autobiographical play entitled "Ugly", which was performed at the school and later won the Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award. The play centered on his pregnant sister's murder at the hands of her husband.
• 2008 - Satellite Award from the International Press Academy for best supporting actor in a television series for his role as Lafayette Reynolds in HBO's True Blood.
• 2009 - NewNowNext Awards "Brink of Fame: Actor" award.
• 2009 - Ewwy Award for "Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series" for True Blood.
• 2009 - Scream Award for "Best Supporting Actor" for True Blood.
• 2011 - NAACP Image Award for "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series" for True Blood.

Filmography

Film
Year	Film	Role	Notes
2002	Lost	Hoffa	Short film
2005	Warm Springs	Roy Collier	TV movie
	Trespass	Trespass
2008	The Express	Will Davis, Jr.
2009	The Soloist	David Carter
	Talent	Titus
2010	Secretariat	Eddie Sweat
2011	The Help	Henry the Waiter
2012	The Reluctant Fundamentalist	Wainwright
2013	Page 36	Writer and Director	Short Film
	The Butler	Martin Luther King, Jr.
2014	Get On Up	Bobby Byrd
2015	The Stanford Prison Experiment	Jesse Fletcher
Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005	The Inside	Carter Howard	13 Episodes
2007	Veronica Mars	Apollo Bukenya	Episode: "I Know What You'll Do Next Summer"
	Without a Trace	Deng Nimieri	Episode: "Lost Boy"
2008-2014	True Blood	Lafayette Reynolds	Regular Won Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film Won Satellite Award for Best Cast - Television Series Nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series Won Ewwy Award for best supporting actor in a Drama series Won NewNowNext Award for Brink of Fame: Actor Nominated for a Scream Award for best supporting actor
2015	RuPaul's Drag Race	Himself, Guest Judge	Episode: "Conjoined Queens"

Charities

Nelsan Ellis supports the following charitable cause: Autism.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]