Ellis (like the Island) is a Columbia University Playwriting MFA Graduate (2023), full-time Professor at Penn State and Adjunct at Columbia (2023-2024), and gay disgrace to their Amish Lancaster, PA upbringing. Through irreverent yet intimate, shamelessly gen-z, coming-of-age dark comedies and satires, Ellis invites all audiences into insular communities and liberating queer relationships.

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Currently, Ellis is developing their TV/film projects with mentor Steve Martin and collaborators Leigh Silverman, Andrew Barchilon (The Eric Andre Show), Morgan Gould, Corinne Hayoun at Manage-ment, and Eastend Entertainment. Additionally, she's serving as Showrunner of Lianna Rada's (Williamstown Theatre Festival) Episodic Theatre Project (Feb-May 2024).

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This summer, Ellis will be a Playwright-in-Residence at Williamstown Theatre Festival (2024).

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Ellis's full-length plays ONCE ON RUMSPRINGA, WHITE BITCHES IN DELHI, and WHERE I'VE NEVER GONE have been presented Off-Broadway in NYC by the Wild Project, Westbeth Artists Gallery (site-specific), Bohemian National Hall, UP Theater Company, Yonder Window Theatre, and Chain Theatre, atop over a dozen national and international productions (all 2021-2024).

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This past year (2023-2024), they've been a Semifinalist for the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Competition, American Blues Theater Award (twice), and Pipeline Theatre Fellowship, and a Finalist with The Dramatists Guild, Lanford Wilson Festival, Emerson Stages (twice), Fulton Theatre, Athena Project, James Madison University—to name just a few. Their pilot TAART is a Semifinalist, in-the-running, in contests hosted by The Script Lab, ScreenCraft, and Filmmatic (2024).

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Prior, Ellis won the Vaclav Havel Playwriting Award (2019), Yonder Window Ascending Playwright Award (2021), membership in Speranza Playwrights Circle (2021-22) and Yonder Window Playwrights Collective (2021-22), publication in BORDERLESS THALIA Anthology sold at The Drama Book Shop (2023), and funded international residencies at Prague Performing Arts Academy (2019) and Wallace Stegner House in Canada (2020).

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Lowkey, Ellis has also completed five degrees, two honors theses, and two fellowships from Penn State Schreyer Honors College (2019), hitch-hiked solo across numerous continents, and worked as a stand-up comic, Berlin-based screenwriter, and literal certified psychotherapist—before realizing she just needed therapy. Regardless, for jokes or diagnoses, they're your dealer.