Nelsan Ellis

Photo of Nelsan Ellis

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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Job Title

Actor

Born

November 30, 1977

Career Milestones

2009

Cast opposite Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. in the biographical drama "The Soloist"

2008

Breakout role as the drug-dealing, Internet-pornographer and prostitute Lafayette on HBO's "True Blood"

2005

Co-starred with Rachel Nichols and Adam Baldwin in Fox's short-lived crime drama "The Inside"

2002

Wrote and staged "Ugly," a semi-autobiographical play about domestic abuse; received the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts' Martin E. Segal Award

Awards

2010

Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in True Blood