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Nelsan Ellis
Life Time
30 November 1977 - 8 July 2017
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Nelson Ellis was born in 1978 in Harvey, Illinois. His mother, after a divorce from his father, went with the child to Bessemer, Alabama. At the age of 14, Nelsan returned to Illinois, and in 1997, after graduating from high school, went to New York. Ellis, who was always interested in the arts, enrolled at the Juilliard School, the largest of American higher education institutions. A concerned student wrote a play in which he profoundly revealed the topic of domestic violence. To create this work,
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Nelson Ellis was born in 1978 in Harvey, Illinois. His mother, after a divorce from his father, went with the child to Bessemer, Alabama. At the age of 14, Nelsan returned to Illinois, and in 1997, after graduating from high school, went to New York. Ellis, who was always interested in the arts, enrolled at the Juilliard School, the largest of American higher education institutions. A concerned student wrote a play in which he profoundly revealed the topic of domestic violence. To create this work, he was pushed by a family tragedy - during a quarrel, his sister was shot by her husband.
While still a student, Nelsan staged his first work Dangerous and was awarded a prestigious award for this work. As an actor Ellis made his debut in the series “Without a trace”, then he participated in the short drama “Lost”, playing one of the main roles, but the film went unnoticed, and the young actor was forgotten.
Ellis Nelsan in 2005 acted as a screenwriter and producer of the film Trespass, in which he played the main role. This was the impetus in his acting career: after the release of this picture, Ellis was just bombarded with proposals. Then he got cameo roles in the TV series “Veronica Mars” and in the film “Warm Springs”. Then Nelsan was offered a role in the series “Special Department”. In 2006, he served as executive producer.
After that, Ellis’ career again took a break. He returned to the screen in 2008 and received an offer to star in the series.
Real blood" He played Lafayette Reynolds, a black gay chef. The audience loved this character so much that the writers did not kill him, although the decision to do so in the second season was made. For the excellent performance of this role, Nelsan was awarded an award from the Academy of International Press in 2008, and in 2009 was awarded in the nomination “Best New Actor”. In 2011, he received the NAACP Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor. Nelsan then played the role of Will Davis, the brother of the main character in Express: The Story of Sports Legend Ernie Davis. In 2009, the film with his participation “Soloist” was released.
2010 was a successful year for Nelsan in all areas of his career. He starred in the film "Champion" - the story of the legendary horse named Secretariat, who won three consecutive prestigious races in the series "Triple Crown". A little later, Ellis starred in the mini-series “A Drop of Real Blood”, where he again played the beloved Lafayette. He then began working on 36 Pages as a screenwriter, executive producer, and director for the first time.