A gay disgrace to their Amish Lancaster, Pennsylvania upbringing, Ellis (they/she) is a Columbia University MFA Playwright (2023), Professor of Theatre & Screenwriting, and award-winning, internationally-produced storyteller. Through irreverent yet earnest coming-of-age dark comedies, with a shamelessly Gen Z/Millennial voice, Ellis invites all audiences into insular communities and liberating queer relationships.
Presently, Ellis is developing ONCE ON RUMSPRINGA, a play about lesbian Amish meth addicts, with director Leigh Silverman, alongside a TV adaptation produced by Eastend Entertainment. Ellis also recently completed her farcical MFA thesis WHITE BITCHES IN DELHI, under mentor Steve Martin, and is writing numerous new projects with rep Corinne Hayoun at Manage-ment.
Off-Broadway...
A gay disgrace to their Amish Lancaster, Pennsylvania upbringing, Ellis (they/she) is a Columbia University MFA Playwright (2023), Professor of Theatre & Screenwriting, and award-winning, internationally-produced storyteller. Through irreverent yet earnest coming-of-age dark comedies, with a shamelessly Gen Z/Millennial voice, Ellis invites all audiences into insular communities and liberating queer relationships.
Presently, Ellis is developing ONCE ON RUMSPRINGA, a play about lesbian Amish meth addicts, with director Leigh Silverman, alongside a TV adaptation produced by Eastend Entertainment. Ellis also recently completed her farcical MFA thesis WHITE BITCHES IN DELHI, under mentor Steve Martin, and is writing numerous new projects with rep Corinne Hayoun at Manage-ment.
Off-Broadway, Ellis’s work has been produced by The Wild Project, Yonder Window Theatre, Westbeth Artists Gallery (site-specific), Bohemian National Hall, and Chain Theatre. Commissioned regional productions/workshops have been affiliated with: The Main Santa Clarita, Overdue Theatre Company, Speranza Theatre, University of Toronto, Iowa State University, Penn State, and The State Theatre.
Ellis’ plays and screenplays have won the Vaclav Havel Playwriting Award (2019), Yonder Window Ascending Playwright Award (2021), and international residences at Wallace Stegner House and Prague Performing Arts Academy (2020); finalized in competitions by The Dramatists Guild, Emerson Stage, American Blues Theater, Bay Street Theater, Lanford Wilson Festival, Fulton Theatre, James Madison University New Works Lab, Athena Project, Austin Film Festival, ScreenCraft, and Filmmatic (all 2021-2023) atop publications by Havel Library Foundation and Solis Press (available at the Drama Book Shop).
Additionally, Ellis has earned five honors degrees from Penn State (2019), hitch-hiked across numerous continents, and worked as a stand-up comic, Berlin-based screenwriter, and certified psychotherapist. For drugs, dark jokes, or a diagnosis, they're your dealer.