Nelsan Ellis

Nelsan Ellis
Ellis in June 2009
Born	November 30, 1978 (1978-11-30) (age 38) Harvey, Illinois, U.S.
Education	Juilliard School (B.F.A. 2004)
Occupation	Actor, playwright
Years active	2002–present

Nelsan Ellis (born November 30, 1978) is an American film and television actor and playwright. He is well known for his role as Lafayette Reynolds in the HBO series True Blood, which he played from 2008 until the series' completion in 2014, and most recently for starring as Bobby Byrd in the James Brown biopic, Get On Up.

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. Following this, Ellis attended Illinois State University, where he was a National Champion in Duo Interpretation, among other successes, at the National Forensic Association national tournament. and was accepted for enrollment at the Juilliard School's Drama Division when he was 21 (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.