Nelsan Ellis

Acting

Nelsan Ellis

Born 1977-11-30 · Harvey, Illinois, USA

Nelsan Ellis (born c. 1978) was an award-winning American film and television actor and playwright, perhaps best known as Lafayette Reynolds on HBO's True Blood. He died on July 8, 2017, in Los Angeles, California, from complications with heart failure at the age of 39. Description above from the Wikipedia article Nelsan Ellis, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia. ​

Acting credits

The Help poster
8.2

Aibileen Clark is a middle-aged African-American maid who has spent her life raising white children and has recently lost her only son; Minny Jackson is an African-American maid who has often offended her employers despite her family's struggles with money and her desperate need for jobs; and Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan is a young white woman who has recently moved back home after graduating college to find out her childhood maid has mysteriously disappeared. These three stories intertwine to explain how life in Jackson, Mississippi revolves around "the help"; yet they are always kept at a certain distance because of racial lines.

The Help

2011

The Soloist poster
6.7

A Los Angeles journalist befriends a homeless Juilliard-trained musician, while looking for a new article for the paper.

The Soloist

2009

Secretariat poster
7.4

Housewife and mother Penny Chenery agrees to take over her ailing father's Virginia-based Meadow Stables, despite her lack of horse-racing knowledge. Against all odds, Chenery - with the help of veteran trainer Lucien Laurin - manages to navigate the male-dominated business, ultimately fostering the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years.

Secretariat

2010

The Stanford Prison Experiment poster
6.8

In 1971, Stanford's Professor Philip Zimbardo conducts a controversial psychology experiment in which college students pretend to be either prisoners or guards, but the proceedings soon get out of hand. Based on a true story.

The Stanford Prison Experiment

2015

The Butler poster
7.3

Cecil Gaines was a sharecropper's son who grew up in the 1920s as a domestic servant for the white family who casually destroyed his. Eventually striking out on his own, Cecil becomes a hotel valet of such efficiency and discreteness in the 1950s that he becomes a butler in the White House itself. There, Cecil would serve numerous US Presidents over the decades as a passive witness of history with the American Civil Rights Movement gaining momentum even as his family has troubles of its own. As his wife, Gloria, struggles with alcoholism and his defiant eldest son, Louis, strives for a just world, Cecil must decide whether he should take action in his own way.

The Butler

2013

Get On Up poster
6.8

A chronicle of James Brown's rise from extreme poverty to become one of the most influential musicians in history.

Get On Up

2014

The Reluctant Fundamentalist poster
6.6

In New York, a Pakistani native finds that his American Dream has collapsed in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

2013

The Express poster
7.2

Follow the inspirational life of college football hero Ernie Davis, the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy.

The Express

2008

Warm Springs poster
6.6

Franklin Roosevelt, left a paraplegic from polio at 39 years of age, seeks out a miracle cure in the backwoods of Georgia.

Warm Springs

2005

Gods Behaving Badly poster
2.5

Greek gods living in modern-day New York intervene in the lives of a young couple.

Gods Behaving Badly

2013

Roxanne Roxanne poster
6.0

The most feared battle emcee in the early 1980s in Queens, New York, was a fierce teenager from the Queensbridge projects. At the age of 14, Roxanne Shanté was well on her way to becoming a hip-hop legend, as she hustled to provide for her family while defending herself from the dangers of the street.

Roxanne Roxanne

2017

True to the Game poster
5.8

Based on the Terri Woods best selling novel, True to the Game is the love story of Quadir Richards, a charismatic drug lord, and Gena Rollins, a young girl from the projects of Philly. Quadir was able to gain the trust and love of Gena and was on his way out of the game to start a new life with his future bride when tragedy strikes.

True to the Game

2017

Little Boxes poster
6.2

It's the summer before 6th grade, and Clark is the new-in-town biracial kid in a sea of white. Discovering that to be cool he needs to act 'more black,' he fumbles to meet expectations, while his urban intellectual parents Mack and Gina also strive to adjust to small-town living. Equipped for the many inherent challenges of New York, the tight-knit family are ill prepared for the drastically different set of obstacles that their new community presents, and soon find themselves struggling to understand themselves and each other in this new suburban context.

Little Boxes

2017

Behind the camera