Nelsan Ellis

Nelsan Ellis was born in Harvey, Illinois.[1] Following his parents' divorce, Ellis and his mother moved to Alabama. He moved back to Illinois as a teenager, and graduated from Thornridge High School in Dolton, Illinois, in 1997. He went on to attend Juilliard and, while there, wrote a semi-autobiographical play titled Ugly that was performed at the school and won the Martin Segal Award.