Ellis, like the island (they/she), is a Columbia University Playwriting MFA graduate (2023), professor at Penn State, Columbia, and St. Peter's University, and ambitious gay disgrace to their Amish Lancaster, PA upbringing.

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Through irreverent yet intimate, shamelessly Gen-Z, coming-of-age dark comedies and satires, Ellis invites broad audiences into cult-like communities and cathartic queer relationships. Owing to her rural lower-SES roots, she gets fired up by class/wealth privilege and guilt, commodification of identity, political and social polarization, psychology and existentialism, love and co-dependence, and self-projection and vulnerability in our cynical, digital age (as exemplified by this chaotic string of buzzwords).​

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Currently, Ellis is developing their TV/film projects with collaborators Leigh Silverman (SUFFS), Andrew Barchilon (The Eric Andre Show), Mandy Greenfield at Red Yes Studio, Corinne Hayoun at Manage-ment, and Eastend Entertainment.

 

Ellis is also serving as Showrunner of the Episodic Theatre Project (Feb-May 2024), and she'll 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 in NYC by The Wild Project, Westbeth Artists Gallery (site-specific), Bohemian National Hall, UP Theater, Yonder Window Theatre, and Chain Theatre, atop national and international productions (2021-present).

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Professionally, they've been a mentee of Steve Martin (2022-23), Writers Assistant to Bess Wohl (2022) and Edward Einhorn (2019-21), and full-time screenwriter for episodic app, Inkitt-Galatea (2019-20).

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Additionally, she's been a Playwright-in-Residence at Prague Performing Arts Academy (2019) and Wallace Stegner House (2020), a member of playwrights groups at Speranza Theater (2021 & 2024) and Yonder Window Theater (2022), and published in Borderless Thalia Anthology, sold at The Drama Book Shop (2023).

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This year alone (2023-24), they've been a Semifinalist for the O'Neill Playwrights Conference, American Blues Theater Award, Lanford Wilson Festival, and Pipeline PlayLab, and a Finalist with the Dramatists Guild, Emerson Stages, and James Madison Festival, to name a few. Their pilot TAART is a Semifinalist in contests by The Script Lab, Filmmatic, and ScreenCraft Fellowship (2024).

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

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