Biography
The classically trained actor appeared in a number of primetime crime dramas before landing a star-making role in director Alan Ball's sexy vampire drama, "True Blood" (HBO, 2008- ), playing a gender-bending, morally ambiguous fry cook named Lafayette Reynolds. Critics heaped praise on Ellis' compelling performance as the show's resident drug-dealing prostitute whose otherworldly image was both effeminate yet tough. Ellis also took a bite out …
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Career Milestones
2002 | Wrote and staged "Ugly," a semi-autobiographical play about domestic abuse; received the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts' Martin E. Segal Award |
2005 | Co-starred with Rachel Nichols and Adam Baldwin in Fox's short-lived crime drama "The Inside" |
2008 | Breakout role as the drug-dealing, Internet-pornographer and prostitute Lafayette on HBO's "True Blood" |
2009 | Cast opposite Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. in the biographical drama "The Soloist" |
Awards
2010 | Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in True Blood |