| Tracee Ellis Ross | |
|---|---|
Tracee Ellis Ross at the 2007 Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week (Photograph by Christopher Peterson) |
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| Born | Tracee Joy Silberstein October 29, 1972 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Other names | Tracee Ellie Ross |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1996–present |
| Website | |
| http://www.traceeellisross.com/ | |
Tracee Ellis Ross (born October 29, 1972) is an American actress.[1] 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.
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Born Tracee Joy Silberstein in Los Angeles, 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.[2] 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.[3]
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 Dish, 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.[4] 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.[5]
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.[6] 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.[7]
In 2007, Ross starred with her brother Evan Ross and Queen Latifah in the HBO movie Life Support,[8] That same year, she appeared in the Tyler Perry theatrical movie, Daddy's Little Girls.[9] She appeared in the 2009 film Labor Pains.[10] In 2010, she appeared in an episode of Private Practice as a pregnant doctor.[11] In 2011, Ross appeared in two episodes of CSI as the estranged wife of Laurence Fishburne's character.[12][13] Ross is scheduled to star in a new show, Reed Between the Lines, with Malcolm-Jamal Warner airing on BET starting in October 2011.
| Film | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
| 1996 | Far Harbor | Kiki | Credited as Tracee Ellie Ross |
| 1997 | Sue | Linda | Alternative title: Sue lost in Manhattan |
| 1998 | A Fare to Remember | ||
| 2000 | Hanging Up | Kim | |
| In the Weeds | Caroline | ||
| 2006 | I-See-You.Com | Nancy Tanaka | |
| 2007 | Daddy's Little Girls | Cynthia | |
| 2009 | Labor Pains | 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 | Various roles | Unknown episodes |
| 2000–2008 | Girlfriends | Joan Clayton | 172 episodes |
| 2004 | Second Time Around | Naomi | 1 episode |
| 2007 | Life Support | Tanya | Television movie |
| 2010 | Private Practice | Ellen | Episode: "War" |
| 2011 | CSI: Crime Scene Investigation | Gloria Parkes | Episodes: "All That Cremains"; "Father of the Bride"; "Cello and Goodbye"; "In a Dark, Dark House" |
| 2011–present | Reed Between the Lines | Dr. Carla Reed | |
| 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") |
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| Won | Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series |