Nelsan Ellis

Nelsan Ellis was born in Chicago and raised in Alabama. While studying at Julliard, Ellis wrote a semi-autobiographical play called "Ugly," which was not only performed at the school, but he received the Martin Segal Award by Lincoln Center. Further productions of "Ugly" were performed at the Fringe Festival, Storm Theatre and the Santa Monica Playhouse. He also wrote and directed the short film "Page 36," which aired on HBO.

Nelsan Ellis can be seen on the hit HBO vampire series "True Blood," directed by Alan Ball. He was most seen on film in "The Help" for DreamWorks, based on the best-selling novel. Other credits include Disney's "Secretariat" opposite Diane Lane and John Malkovich, "The Soloist," opposite Robert Downey Jr., Jamie Foxx and Catherine Keener, and "The Express" for Universal Pictures. He worked on "Gods Behaving Badly" opposite Edie Falco, Christopher Walken, and Sharon Stone, as well as "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" opposite Kate Hudson, Kiefer Sutherland, and Liev Schreiber.

Ellis' television credits include the Fox television series "The Inside" produced by Brian Grazer and the HBO film "Warm Springs," opposite Kenneth Branagh, Cynthia Nixon and Kathy Bates.

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