A biography for Nelsan Ellishasn’t been written yet.
“I can't approach a character with judgment.”
“I see a project, and I say I want to audition for it, and people let me audition for it. There's a lot to be grateful for.”
“Everybody kept saying, 'I just don't know how to sell you.' I'm odd. I don't think you can put a finger on me.”
“When I wanted to become a serious actor, this girl told me, 'You should go to Juilliard.' And I said, 'Okay.'”
“You go back to my town, it's like going back to the 1960s... just not a great place to grow up.”
“At some point in my life, I wanted to be in a vampire movie.”
“My idea of horses is from when I grew up on a farm. They were big, and they were dumb.”
“When you deal with Alan Ball, you're dealing with a person who is a genius in terms of how art imitates life.”
“I don't look anything like my mother, except when I'm Lafayette. I look like my father.”
“When you're in a position that you can comfortably give, you need to pay it forward.”
“Whenever you have a character in which one of his defining qualities is his sexuality, it's always challenging, because you don't want to bring in someone who's going to play that in a phony way.”
“I was quiet, and I was artistic. I liked writing poetry, and that was very strange, so I was bullied a lot.”
“I was raised by women.”
“But no one told me that when you're in the military, they own you.”
“Let gay people get married.”
“Domestic violence is an epidemic, and yet we don't address it. Until it happens to celebrities.”
“The ultimate part that I want to play in my life is Jimi Hendrix, so I guess I'm drawn to music even though I can't sing or dance very well.”
“I had no intention of being an actor.”
“The arts are suffering amongst public schools, but also, minority theater companies are struggling, and I firmly believe in freedom of expression through the arts.”
“There were not many black students at Juilliard, unfortunately. So when you get there, you become very good friends, in particular, with the other black students.”