Ella Joyce*

Ella Joyce*

(Rose, Fences) has earned many awards and citations for her work. Credits include: Goodman Theatre, Having Our Say by Emily Mann, earning a Black Theater Alliance Nomination for Dr. Bessie Delaney; August Wilson’s King Hedley II at The Matrix earning a Los Angeles Ovation Award and an LA Drama Critics Circle Nomination for the role of Ruby; Tonya in the original production of King Hedley II at O’Reilly Pittsburgh Public Theater with Tony Todd; Risa in Two Trains Running on tour, premiering at Yale Rep; originating the role of Lily Ann Green in Lynn Nottage’s Crumbs From the Table Of Joy at Second Stage Theater, South Coast Rep, and Goodman Theatre earning a Jefferson Award and Black Theater Alliance Award. As a Beinecke Fellow at Yale Rep School of Drama, Ella performed in Bossa Nova by Kirsten Greenidge which she also originated at the Sundance Playwriting Lab in Utah. She is an original founding member of The National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, NC, and has performed as a favorite at that Festival for years. She performed with Ruby Dee at the Bermuda Arts Festival in Ron Milner’s Checkmates. Ella is also known for her role of Eleanor in the sitcom Roc which earned her an NAACP Nomination. Other select TV/Film: Temptation, My Wife and Kids, The Jamie Foxx Show, Seinfeld, Eve, Being Mary Jane, Preacher’s Kid, Lucky Girl, Bubba Ho-Tep, Set It Off, Selma, Lord Selma, Nina, and MTV Award winning “Waterfalls” video. As a voiceover artist, she is heard on Audible Books-on-tape: Ron Milner’s Ruby McCollum Story, as the voice of Zora Neal Hurston produced by Los Angeles Theatre Works, and BET’s Storyporch children reading series. EllaJoyce.com.