Biografie

21. Februar 1969 · San Francisco, Kalifornien, USA

Aunjanue L. Ellis

1,66 m

Has her B.A. in African-American studies from Brown University, and studied acting in the graduate drama program at NYU.

Attended Tougaloo College in Tougaloo, Mississippi before she transferred to Brown University, where she completed her undergraduate studies.

A featured player in actress Regina Taylor's play, Drowning Crow, at the Manhattan Theatre Club.

Is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.

She added her mother's surname (Taylor) to have her mother receive credit as she doesn't know her father.

Every role is a potential lover. I ask: Are they someone I want to wake up to in the morning and go to bed with at night? Do they question my assumptions about life? Consume me to distraction? Make my cry, then clown to make me laugh again? If I say yes, then it's all I need.

I love playing different characters and things that are challenging. I'm not interested in safety at all. That's what makes me get up in the morning.

A lot of practical things keep me motivated, like taking care of my family. On an artistic level, there are stories that I want to tell. I grew up in a storytelling-rich community. It is important to me as a consumer of art and I guess in some ways a wannabe artist to continue that tradition, and acting is my chosen genre at this point to do that.

Pain doesn't have a face and pain doesn't have a certain way of adjusting. Pain is universal.