Aunjanue Ellis

Aunjanue Ellis

Birth : 1969-02-21, San Francisco, California, USA

History

​Aunjanue L. Ellis is an American producer, stage and screen actress, best known for her film roles in "Ray", "Undercover Brother", and on the television series "The Mentalist". She has an BA in African-American Studies from Brown University, and an MFA in Acting from the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University.

Profile

Aunjanue Ellis
Aunjanue Ellis
Aunjanue Ellis
Aunjanue Ellis

Movies

Grace
Executive Producer
A 1950s Southern teen questions her faith and sexuality on the eve of her baptism when urged to repent her feelings for her best friend.
Exhibiting Forgiveness
Joyce
Utilizing his paintings to find freedom from his past, a Black artist on the path to success is derailed by an unexpected visit from his estranged father, a recovering addict desperate to reconcile. Together, they learn that forgetting might be a greater challenge than forgiving.
The Color Purple
Mama
A decades-spanning tale of love and resilience and of one woman's journey to independence. Celie faces many hardships in her life, but ultimately finds extraordinary strength and hope in the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood.
Origin
Examines the unspoken system that has shaped America and chronicles how our lives today are defined by a hierarchy of human divisions dating back generations.
King Richard
Oracene "Brandy" Price
The story of how Richard Williams served as a coach to his daughters Venus and Serena, who will soon become two of the most legendary tennis players in history.
The Subject
Leslie
A successful white documentarian deals with the fallout from his last film, which caught the murder of a Black teen on tape. While he films a new doc series, someone else tapes his every move.
The Clark Sisters: First Ladies of Gospel
Mattie Moss Clark
With guidance from their mother, five siblings overcome humble beginnings to form the renowned gospel group the Clark Sisters.
Miss Virginia
Lorraine Townsend
A struggling inner-city mother sacrifices everything to give her son a good education. Unwilling to allow her son to stay in a dangerous school, she launches a movement that could save his future - and that of thousands like him.
If Beale Street Could Talk
Mrs. Hunt
After her fiance is falsely imprisoned, a pregnant African-American woman sets out to clear his name and prove his innocence.
Pimp
Gloria May
An urban love story set on the hard streets of the Bronx. A struggling female pimp, named Wednesday, grows up learning the game from her dad. Once he's gone she's left to look out for her prostitute mother and girlfriend Nikki.
Romeo and Juliet in Harlem
Lady Capulet
The first Shakespeare feature film adaptation of "Romeo and Juliet" with a complete cast of color that stays true to the language and storyline.
The Birth of a Nation
Nancy Turner
Nat Turner, a former slave in America, leads a liberation movement in 1831 to free African-Americans in Virginia that results in a violent retaliation from whites.
Of Mind and Music
Una Vida
Dr. Alvaro Cruz, a neuroscientist, disillusioned by the death of his mother and his inability to help her, finds redemption and reward by helping Una Vida, a jazz singer he discovers performing on the streets of New Orleans. Her health declining and her singing partner and her adopted daughter unable to help, Cruz seeks out her long lost son in an effort to bring resolution to the grief, loss and longing that has overshadowed her hard but beautiful life.
Get on Up
Vicki Anderson
A chronicle of James Brown's rise from extreme poverty to become one of the most influential musicians in history.
The Volunteer
Leigh
After quitting her stable but soul-crushing job, Leigh passes her days in an apathetic fog until she decides to volunteer at a soup kitchen. There she meets Ethan, a homeless man with whom she begins an electric, but turbulent affair.
Abducted: The Carlina White Story
Ann
A baby abducted at birth and raised by the woman who took her, eventually discovers she is a missing child, reconnects with her birth parents, and struggles with choosing between her two identities.
Money Matters
Pamela Matters
A moving and intimate film that follows Monique "Money" Matters (Terri Abney) caught at the brink of adolescence. Her relationship with her mother Pamela Matters (Aunjanue Ellis- RAY, MEN OF HONER), is far from stable and depicts the struggle between a young mother and daughter who both come of age...together. Sharp and candid dialogue blur the roles of parent and child, revealing a family secret magnified by pain and years of regret. Money's daily routine; a three-bus commute to the Catholic school she attends, far from her dilapidated neighborhood, to another world where she feels just as uncomfortable. When she befriends a neighborhood girl who seems to understand her, their friendship develops in ways that push boundaries.
The Help
Yule Mae Davis
Aibileen Clark is a middle-aged African-American maid who has spent her life raising white children and has recently lost her only son; Minny Jackson is an African-American maid who has often offended her employers despite her family's struggles with money and her desperate need for jobs; and Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan is a young white woman who has recently moved back home after graduating college to find out her childhood maid has mysteriously disappeared. These three stories intertwine to explain how life in Jackson, Mississippi revolves around "the help"; yet they are always kept at a certain distance because of racial lines.
Game of Death
Rachel
CIA agent Marcus is sent undercover to Detroit to take out an arms dealer and the head of the hedge fund that is financing him. His CIA backup has other plans and turns on him, and it's a fight to survive in a hospital and into the hedge fund vault.
The Resident
Sydney
Juliet, a beautiful doctor, has found the perfect New York apartment to start a new life after separating from her husband. It's got spacious rooms, a spectacular view, and a handy, handsome landlord. But there are secrets behind every wall and terror in every room as Juliet gets the unnerving feeling that she is not alone.
The Tested
Darraylynn Warren
A life shattering tragedy sends three people on vastly different paths to a similar goal of redemption and understanding.
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
Therese Garber
Armed men hijack a New York City subway train, holding the passengers hostage in return for a ransom, and turning an ordinary day's work for dispatcher Walter Garber into a face-off with the mastermind behind the crime.
Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story
Candy
Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story is a movie based on the life story of world-renowned neurosurgeon Ben Carson from 1961 to 1987.
The Hungry Ghosts
Nadia
A New York City-set drama of interlocking stories which occur over a 36-hour period.
Motherhood
Sample Sale Friend
Motherhood is a comedy written and directed by Katherine Dieckmann, and stars Uma Thurman, Anthony Edwards and Minnie Driver. Shot on location in New York’s West Village, focuses on the dilemmas of motherhood, such as marriage, work, and self, shown in the trials and tribulations of one pivotal day.
I Love You Phillip Morris
Reba
Steve Russell is a small-town cop. Bored with his bland lifestyle, Russell turns to fraud as a means of shaking things up. Before long, Russell's criminal antics have landed him behind bars, where he encounters the charismatic Phillip Morris. Smitten, Russell devotes his entire life to being with Morris regardless of the consequences.
The Express
Marie Davis
Based on the incredible true story, The Express follows the inspirational life of college football hero Ernie Davis, the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy.
The Prince of Motor City
A modern-day adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet set in Detroit.
Racing for Time
Officer Baker
Cleveland 'Stack' Stackhouse is a guard with the Texas Correctional Youth Authority who witnesses the cycle of destructive choices and racial tensions among female teen offenders and decides to do something about it. He gathers African-American, Latina and Caucasian teens, and organizes a multi-racial track team behind the bars of the prison. Participation in Stack's track team not only breaks down the racial divides between the girls, but puts them on a path to turn their lives around.
Cover
Valerie Mass
When someone is murdered on New Year's Eve, the prime suspect is Valerie Maas, a church-going home-maker whose life unravels when she discovers that her husband of many years has been leading a double life. Her strength of character and faith keep her going as the revelation of her husband's betrayal threatens to destroy all that they have known.
Freedomland
Felicia
A black police detective must solve a strange case of a kidnapped boy and deal with a big racial protest.
Perception
Vera
When Jen Marshall, an LA girl with a reckless personality and a laundry list of burned bridges, returns to New York and unexpected tragedy strikes, it is up to her mistreated friends to decide between helping her through this tough time or abandoning her - like she did them.
Ray
Mary Ann Fisher
Born on a sharecropping plantation in Northern Florida, Ray Charles went blind at seven. Inspired by a fiercely independent mom who insisted he make his own way, He found his calling and his gift behind a piano keyboard. Touring across the Southern musical circuit, the soulful singer gained a reputation and then exploded with worldwide fame when he pioneered coupling gospel and country together.
Brother to Brother
Zora
A drama that looks back on the Harlem Renaissance from the perspective of an elderly, black writer who meets a gay teenager in a New York homeless shelter.
Undercover Brother
Sistah Girl
An Afro-American organization, the B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D., is in permanent fight against a white organization "The Man" defending the values of the black people in North America. When the Afro-American candidate Gen. Warren Boutwell behaves strangely in his presidential campaign, Undercover Brother is hired to work undercover for "The Man" and find what happened with the potential candidate.
Lovely & Amazing
Lorraine
An intimate family portrait of four hapless but resilient women and the bittersweet lessons they learn in keeping up with the hectic demands of their individual neuroses. Each of the women seeks redemption in her own haphazard way, but whatever salvation they find is illusory and short-lived.
The Opponent
Patty Sullivan (Erica Eleniak) is a battered woman who decides to take charge of her life by taking boxing lessons to better protect herself when her boyfriend becomes violent. Patty soon learns she has some talent for boxing and sets her sights on competing in a professional fight. More is on the line than just the woman's title.
John John in the Sky
Earlene
A young boy sets out to build a working airplane in order to allow him to escape with his mother from his abusive father.
The Caveman's Valentine
Lulu
Romulus, a misunderstood musician turned recluse hiding from personal demons in a New York City cave, finds the frozen body of a young drifter in a tree. The authorities, including his police officer daughter, claim the death is accidental. Romulus is convinced the man was murdered by a prominent art photographer but how can he prove he's right when everyone thinks he's insane?
Disappearing Acts
Pam
Zora Banks is a school teacher and aspiring singer hoping to become a successful star while taking a break from heartache. Franklin Swift is a down-on-his-luck construction worker and not-quite divorced father of two hoping to start his own business. The two meet and fall in love and during the course of the stormy relationship, they both come to some startling conclusions about love and each other.
Men of Honor
Jo
Against formidable odds -- and an old-school diving instructor embittered by the U.S. Navy's new, less prejudicial policies -- Carl Brashear sets his sights on becoming the Navy's first African-American master diver in this uplifting true story. Their relationship starts out on the rocks, but fate ultimately conspires to bring the men together into a setting of mutual respect, triumph and honor.
A Map of the World
Dyshett
School nurse Alice Goodwin lives with her husband and two daughters on a dairy farm in a small Wisconsin community. After an accident on her property involving a friend's child, the town turns against her and Alice finds herself fighting charges of child abuse.
In Too Deep
Denise
Drug lord Dwayne Gittens rules Cincinnati with an iron fist. No wonder he's known as "God" on the streets. Determined to break Gittens' stranglehold on the city is undercover cop Jeffrey Cole. But as Cole takes on an assumed identity to penetrate Gittens' criminal empire, he makes a disturbing discovery -- he kind of likes being a gangster.
Desert Blue
Agent Summers
An academic obsessed with "roadside attractions" and his tv-star daughter finally discover the world's largest ice cream cone, the centerpiece for an old gold-rush town struggling to stay on the map. They end up staying longer than expected because of an accident that spilled an unknown cola ingredient all over the highway. They spend the next few days with the various residents of the town which include a teenage girl who loves to blow things up and a boy trying to keep alive his fathers dream of building a beachside resort in the middle of the desert.
Side Streets
Brenda Boyce
In 24 hours, 5 worlds collide in the forgotten neighborhoods of New York City.
Ed's Next Move
Erica
Ed lives in Wisconsin. He's just been dumped by his girlfriend, so he moves to New York City for a big change...but will he ever find love again? He loves his new job studying the genetics of different strains of rice. Then Ed meets Lee, a quirky singer. She's just what Ed thinks he's looking for, and she's available...or is she?
Girls Town
Nikki
The death of a friend galvanizes three high school young women to reassess their friendship and their lives.
HBCU Honors
Self
The Inaugural HBCU Honors is an evening in Miami, Fl. hosted by Wendy Raquel Robinson to celebrate HBCU alum: Sheila Chamberlain, Pinky Cole, Aunjanue Ellis, Dr. Glenda Baskin Glover, Steve Pamon, Mic
The Nickel Boys
Producers of MGM and Plan B are teaming up with director RaMell Ross for a film depiction of Colson Whitehead’s 2019 novel, based on real-life events which have only recently come to light. The narrative bounces between the 2010s and the 1960s as an investigation takes place surrounding the now-defunct Dozier School for Boys in Florida. The academy’s walls hide a history of atrocities, including events that led to bodies being buried on the premises.
The Supremes At Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat
Three best friends dubbed “The Supremes,” who have weathered life’s storms together for two generations through marriage and children, happiness and the blues, find their paths at a crossroads that test their lifelong bond.
The Deliverance
A mother whose children became demonically possessed in a thriller inspired by an actual case.