ELLA JOYCE

Best known for her television role of “Eleanor” on TV’s family sitcom “Roc” which earned her an NAACP Image Award Nomination. Her TV Guest star appearances include the recurring role of Jasmine on “My Wife & Kids”, “The Jamie Foxx Show”, “Seinfeld”, and co-starred in “Belle‘s” on TVOne. Ella recently appeared in a very dramatic episode “Sparrow” on ‘Being Mary Jane” on BET
Ms. Joyce’s movie credits include the role of Sarah in Tyler Perry’s “Temptation: Confessions Of A Marriage Counselor“, Sister Watkins in Warner Bros. popular film “Preacher’s Kid”, Detective Waller in the popular action film “Set It Off”, the Nurse in “Bubba Ho-Tep”, “ Lucky Girl” , Disney’s “Selma, Lord Selma” and “Our Family Wedding”. Indie films include Forbidden Fruits”, “Dead of Winter”, “Uncle P”, the hilarious “Who Made the Potato Salad?” and “Stranger Inside”. She’s also remembered as the young distraught Mother in the classic multiple Award winning music video-TLC “Waterfalls”. Ella appears in the film “Nina” based on the life of singer Nina Simone.
Ella works extensively in legitimate Regional Theatre earning both the JEFFERSON Award and the Black Theatre Alliance Award (BTAA) from the Goodman Theatre in Chicago for Lynne Nottage’s “Crumbs from the Table of Joy” portraying Lily Ann Green. Ms. Joyce, professionally world premiered two August Wilson plays, “Two Trains Running” opposite Laurence Fishburne at Yale Rep Theater; and “King Hedley” at the O’Reilly Pittsburgh Public Theater. She performed at the Bermuda Arts Festival opposite the legendary Ruby Dee in Ron Milner’s “Checkmates”. She performed Rose in “Fences” at the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, NC, where she has served as a Board Member helping to establish that Festival with the late Larry Leon Hamilin. As a Beinecke Fellow at Yale Rep School of Drama, Ella was invited to perform in “Bossa Nova” by Kirsten Greenidge, originating from the Sundance Playwriting Lab in Utah. Her many legitimate and urban stage credits have taken her to many regional theaters across the country.
As a talented voiceover artist, Ella’s work on audible Books On-Tape includes Ron Milner’s “Ruby McCollum Story”, portraying the voice of Zora Neal Hurston produced by Susan Lowenberg’s Los Angeles Theater Works. Ella received an NAACP Image Nomination for BET’s “Storyporch” (the children TV reading series).
Ella spent five years touring her own one-woman play “A Rose Among Thorns: A Tribute to Rosa Parks“, in 28 cities around the country, receiving numerous awards, citations, wonderful press reviews, testimonials, and accolades. Her play info is archived at www.aRoseAmongThorns.com.
Ella is a dance enthusiast and has a trademark her own exercise technique, based upon Soul & Funk Music and dances from the 60’s & 70’s, called “Funkacize”. www.funkacize.com
For more information on the actress, please visit www.EllaJoyce.com.