Joy Keys chats with Actress Nadine Ellis

Nadine Ellis is an in-demand actress who currently stars in the FOX series, Our Kind of People.  In the soapy and thrilling drama, Nadine plays Leah Franklin-Dupont, a strong, confident, elegant businesswoman who sits at the top of the food chain of the wealthy, long-standing Black elite in Martha’s Vineyard.  The show follows a single mom, Angela Vaughn, who risks it all and moves her family to Martha’s Vineyard with hopes of reclaiming her family’s name by taking her natural hair care line to the next while infiltrating the African American elite in Oak Bluffs.  Leah is wary of Angela and will do anything to protect her family’s reputation and name.   

Prior to Our Kind of People, Nadine was a series regular on BET’s comedy Let’s Stay Together as Dr. Stacy Lawrence and Netflix’s The Greenhouse Academy as Judy Hayword; and recurred on Showtime’s Shameless as Dr. Brenda Williams.  Earlier this year, Nadine starred in the backdoor pilot for the upcoming CW series All American: Homecoming, playing Ms. Sims, the mother of an up-and-coming college baseball player.  

The Queens-native got her start in the entertainment industry as a professional dancer.  Throughout her successful dance career, Nadine performed with Beyoncé at the VMAs; starred in the film Hairspray as the lead of the Supremes-like group, the Dynamites; and was one of the original cat Dolls.