Tracee Ellis Ross
Encyclopedia
Tracee Ellis Ross is an American
actress. She is best known for her lead role as Joan Clayton on the UPN
/CW
series, Girlfriends
. She is currently starring as Dr. Carla Reed on the new BET sitcom Reed Between the Lines
.
, California
, she is the daughter of singer/actress Diana Ross
and music business manager Robert Ellis Silberstein. Actor and musician Evan Ross
is her brother. Ross attended the Dalton School in Manhattan
and the Institut Le Rosey
in Switzerland
. She was a model in her teens.
She attended Brown University
where she appeared in plays, and graduated in 1994 with a theatre degree. She later worked in the fashion industry, as a model and contributing fashion editor to Mirabella
and New York
magazine.
, a Lifetime TV magazine series keeping tabs on popular culture
. In 1998, she starred as a former high school track star who remained silent about having been abused at the hands of a coach, in the NBC
made-for-TV movie: Race Against Fear: A Moment of Truth. Her next role was an independent feature film
Sue
. In 2000, she landed her first major studio role in Diane Keaton
's Hanging Up
. The same year, she broke into comedy as a regular performer in the MTV
series The Lyricist Lounge Show
, a hip-hop variety series mixing music, dramatic sketches, and comedic skits.
Ross' biggest career achievement came when she landed the role of Joan Carol Clayton — a successful (and often neurotic) lawyer looking for love, challenges, and adventure, in the hit UPN
/CW
series Girlfriends
. The series centers on four young African-American women. In 2007, Ross won an NAACP Image Award in the category, Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series for her role on the series. She won a second Image Award for the role in 2009.
In 2007, Ross starred with her brother Evan Ross
and Queen Latifah
in the HBO movie Life Support
, That same year, she appeared in the Tyler Perry
theatrical movie, Daddy's Little Girls. She appeared in the 2009 film Labor Pains
. In 2010, she appeared in an episode of Private Practice as a pregnant doctor. In 2011, Ross appeared in two episodes of CSI
as the estranged wife of Laurence Fishburne
's character.
Ross is scheduled to star in a new show, Reed Between the Lines
, with Malcolm-Jamal Warner
airing on BET starting in October 2011.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress. She is best known for her lead role as Joan Clayton on the UPN
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...
/CW
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
series, Girlfriends
Girlfriends
Girlfriends is an American comedy-drama sitcom that premiered on September 11, 2000, on UPN and aired on UPN's successor network, The CW, before being cancelled in 2008...
. She is currently starring as Dr. Carla Reed on the new BET sitcom Reed Between the Lines
Reed Between the Lines
Reed Between the Lines is an American television family sitcom created by Kellie R. Griffin. It premiered on BET on October 11, 2011. On April 12, 2011, BET announced that it picked up Reed Between The Lines for a fall 2011-2012 television schedule to pair with The Game and Let's Stay Together...
.
Early life
Born Tracee Joy Silberstein in Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, she is the daughter of singer/actress Diana Ross
Diana Ross
Diana Ernestine Earle Ross is an American singer, record producer, and actress. Ross was lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes during the 1960s. After leaving the group in 1970, Ross began a solo career that included successful ventures into film and Broadway...
and music business manager Robert Ellis Silberstein. Actor and musician Evan Ross
Evan Ross
Evan Olav Næss is an American actor and musician. He is the son of entertainer Diana Ross. He is the brother of actresses Rhonda Ross Kendrick and Tracee Ellis Ross, and of singer Leona Naess. He began acting in the late 2000s, appearing in the films ATL and Pride...
is her brother. Ross attended the Dalton School in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
and the Institut Le Rosey
Institut Le Rosey
Institut Le Rosey, commonly referred to as Le Rosey or simply Rosey, is a school, in Gstaad, Switzerland. It is described as one of the most prestigious boarding schools in the world. The school was founded by Paul-Émile Carnal in 1880 on the site of the 14th-century Château du Rosey near the town...
in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. She was a model in her teens.
She attended Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
where she appeared in plays, and graduated in 1994 with a theatre degree. She later worked in the fashion industry, as a model and contributing fashion editor to Mirabella
Mirabella
Mirabella was a women's magazine published from 1989 to 2000. It was created by and named for Grace Mirabella, a former Vogue editor in chief....
and New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
magazine.
Career
Ross made her big screen debut in 1996, playing a Jewish/African-American woman in the independent feature film Far Harbor. The following year, she debuted as host of The DishThe Dish
The Dish is a 2000 Australian film that tells the story of how the Parkes Observatory was used to relay the live television of man's first steps on the moon, during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969...
, a Lifetime TV magazine series keeping tabs on popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
. In 1998, she starred as a former high school track star who remained silent about having been abused at the hands of a coach, in the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
made-for-TV movie: Race Against Fear: A Moment of Truth. Her next role was an independent feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
Sue
Sue Lost in Manhattan
Sue Lost in Manhattan, also known as Sue, is a 1998 American drama film directed by Amos Kollek.- Synopsis :Desperately alone, Sue wanders in New York City...
. In 2000, she landed her first major studio role in Diane Keaton
Diane Keaton
Diane Keaton is an American film actress, director, producer, and screenwriter. Keaton began her career on stage, and made her screen debut in 1970...
's Hanging Up
Hanging Up
Hanging Up is a 2000 American comedy-drama film about a trio of sisters who bond over their ambivalence toward the approaching death of their curmudgeonly father, to whom none of them were particularly close...
. The same year, she broke into comedy as a regular performer in the MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
series The Lyricist Lounge Show
The Lyricist Lounge Show
The Lyricist Lounge Show is an American sketch comedy series that aired on MTV from 2000 to 2001 that combined hip-hop music with raps interspersed throughout the sketches...
, a hip-hop variety series mixing music, dramatic sketches, and comedic skits.
Ross' biggest career achievement came when she landed the role of Joan Carol Clayton — a successful (and often neurotic) lawyer looking for love, challenges, and adventure, in the hit UPN
UPN
United Paramount Network was a television network that was broadcast in over 200 markets in the United States from 1995 to 2006. UPN was originally owned by Viacom/Paramount and Chris-Craft Industries, the former of which, through the Paramount Television Group, produced most of the network's...
/CW
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
series Girlfriends
Girlfriends
Girlfriends is an American comedy-drama sitcom that premiered on September 11, 2000, on UPN and aired on UPN's successor network, The CW, before being cancelled in 2008...
. The series centers on four young African-American women. In 2007, Ross won an NAACP Image Award in the category, Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series for her role on the series. She won a second Image Award for the role in 2009.
In 2007, Ross starred with her brother Evan Ross
Evan Ross
Evan Olav Næss is an American actor and musician. He is the son of entertainer Diana Ross. He is the brother of actresses Rhonda Ross Kendrick and Tracee Ellis Ross, and of singer Leona Naess. He began acting in the late 2000s, appearing in the films ATL and Pride...
and Queen Latifah
Queen Latifah
Dana Elaine Owens , better known by her stage name Queen Latifah, is an American singer, rapper, and actress. Her work in music, film and television has earned her a Golden Globe award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Image Awards, a Grammy Award, six additional Grammy nominations, an Emmy...
in the HBO movie Life Support
Life Support (film)
Life Support is a 2007 American film starring Queen Latifah. It is loosely based on the real life story of Andrea Williams, an HIV-positive woman....
, That same year, she appeared in the Tyler Perry
Tyler Perry
Tyler Perry is an American actor, director, playwright, entrepreneur, screenwriter, producer, author, and songwriter. Perry wrote and produced many stage plays during the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2005, he released his first film, Diary of a Mad Black Woman...
theatrical movie, Daddy's Little Girls. She appeared in the 2009 film Labor Pains
Labor Pains
Labor Pains is a 2009 romantic comedy starring Lindsay Lohan, Luke Kirby, Cheryl Hines, Chris Parnell, Bridgit Mendler, and Kevin Covais. The film received a television premiere on ABC Family on July 19, 2009. It was originally scheduled to be released in theatres...
. In 2010, she appeared in an episode of Private Practice as a pregnant doctor. In 2011, Ross appeared in two episodes of CSI
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000. The show was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...
as the estranged wife of Laurence Fishburne
Laurence Fishburne
Laurence John Fishburne III is an American film and stage actor, playwright, director, and producer. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Morpheus in the Matrix science fiction film trilogy, as Cowboy Curtis on the 1980's television show Pee-wee's Playhouse, and as singer-musician Ike Turner...
's character.
Ross is scheduled to star in a new show, Reed Between the Lines
Reed Between the Lines
Reed Between the Lines is an American television family sitcom created by Kellie R. Griffin. It premiered on BET on October 11, 2011. On April 12, 2011, BET announced that it picked up Reed Between The Lines for a fall 2011-2012 television schedule to pair with The Game and Let's Stay Together...
, with Malcolm-Jamal Warner
Malcolm-Jamal Warner
Malcolm-Jamal Warner is an American television actor, film director, and musician. He is best known for his role as Theo Huxtable on the long-running NBC sitcom The Cosby Show. Additionally, he appeared as Malcolm McGee on the UPN sitcom Malcolm & Eddie. He is currently starring as Dr...
airing on BET starting in October 2011.
Filmography
| Film | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
| 1996 | Far Harbor | Kiki | Credited as Tracee Ellie Ross |
| 1997 | Sue Sue Lost in Manhattan Sue Lost in Manhattan, also known as Sue, is a 1998 American drama film directed by Amos Kollek.- Synopsis :Desperately alone, Sue wanders in New York City... |
Linda | Alternative title: Sue lost in Manhattan Sue Lost in Manhattan Sue Lost in Manhattan, also known as Sue, is a 1998 American drama film directed by Amos Kollek.- Synopsis :Desperately alone, Sue wanders in New York City... |
| 1998 | A Fare to Remember | ||
| 2000 | Hanging Up Hanging Up Hanging Up is a 2000 American comedy-drama film about a trio of sisters who bond over their ambivalence toward the approaching death of their curmudgeonly father, to whom none of them were particularly close... |
Kim | |
| In the Weeds | Caroline | ||
| 2006 | I-See-You.Com I-See-You.Com I-See-You.Com is a comedy film directed and co-written by Eric Steven Stahl, starring Beau Bridges and Rosanna Arquette.-Plot:Harvey Bellinger , his wife Lydia , and their two teenage kids live a well off life in suburbia... |
Nancy Tanaka | |
| 2007 | Daddy's Little Girls | Cynthia | |
| 2009 | Labor Pains Labor Pains Labor Pains is a 2009 romantic comedy starring Lindsay Lohan, Luke Kirby, Cheryl Hines, Chris Parnell, Bridgit Mendler, and Kevin Covais. The film received a television premiere on ABC Family on July 19, 2009. It was originally scheduled to be released in theatres... |
Kristin | |
| Television | |||
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1997 | The Dish | Host | Unknown episodes |
| 1998 | Broken Silence: A Moment of Truth Movie" | Kaycee King | Television movie |
| 2000 | The Lyricist Lounge Show The Lyricist Lounge Show The Lyricist Lounge Show is an American sketch comedy series that aired on MTV from 2000 to 2001 that combined hip-hop music with raps interspersed throughout the sketches... |
Various roles | Unknown episodes |
| 2000–2008 | Girlfriends Girlfriends Girlfriends is an American comedy-drama sitcom that premiered on September 11, 2000, on UPN and aired on UPN's successor network, The CW, before being cancelled in 2008... |
Joan Clayton | 172 episodes |
| 2004 | Second Time Around | Naomi | 1 episode |
| 2007 | Life Support Life Support (film) Life Support is a 2007 American film starring Queen Latifah. It is loosely based on the real life story of Andrea Williams, an HIV-positive woman.... |
Tanya | Television movie |
| 2010 | Private Practice | Ellen | Episode: "War" |
| 2011 | CSI: Crime Scene Investigation CSI: Crime Scene Investigation CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000. The show was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer... |
Gloria Parkes | Episodes: "All That Cremains"; "Father of the Bride"; "Cello and Goodbye"; "In a Dark, Dark House" |
| 2011–present | Reed Between the Lines Reed Between the Lines Reed Between the Lines is an American television family sitcom created by Kellie R. Griffin. It premiered on BET on October 11, 2011. On April 12, 2011, BET announced that it picked up Reed Between The Lines for a fall 2011-2012 television schedule to pair with The Game and Let's Stay Together... |
Dr. Carla Reed | |
Awards and nominations
| Year | Award | Result | Category | Series |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Prism Awards | Nominated | Performance in a Comedy Series | Girlfriends |
| 2004 | BET Comedy Awards | Nominated | Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series | Girlfriends |
| 2005 | Won | Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series | ||
| 2002 | NAACP Image Awards | Nominated | Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series | Girlfriends |
| 2003 | ||||
| 2004 | ||||
| 2005 | ||||
| 2006 | ||||
| 2007 | Won | |||
| 2008 | Nominated | Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series | ||
| 2009 | Nominated | Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series (For episode "What's Black-A-Lackin") |
||
| Won | Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series |