Trey Ellis is an American Book Award Winning novelist, Emmy and Peabody-winning filmmaker, playwright and Professor of Screenwriting in the Graduate School of Film at Columbia University. Most recently he was an Executive Producer, interviewer and co-field director for the HBO documentary?True Justice: Bryan Stevenson's Fight For Equality, and Executive Producer and interviewer for?King in the Wilderness, also for HBO.
His works have been screened at the Museum of Modern Art and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. His short film,?What the Wind Carries, was produced by HBO and is part of the permanent collection of the Legacy Museum:?From Slavery to Mass Incarceration in Montgomery, Alabama. His first play,?Fly, was commissioned and performed at The Lincoln Center Institute, continues to play around the country, including the historic Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C., the Pasadena Playhouse and the New Victory Theater on 42nd Street in New York City.
Mr. Ellis’ first novel,?Platitudes, was published in the United States and in France, followed by his second novel,?Home Repairs.?Platitudes?and?Home Repairs?were both favorably reviewed by?The New York Times Book Review,?The New Yorker,?The Washington Post Book World,?The Nation,?The Los Angeles Times, among others. The film rights to?Home Repairs?were acquired by Denzel Washington and Mr. Ellis wrote the screenplay for Sony Pictures.?Right Here, Right Now, won an American Book Award and was named one of the notable books of the year by?The Washington Post.?Platitudes?was reissued by Black Classics Press, an imprint of Northeastern University Press.
One of Mr. Ellis’ first screenplays,?The Inkwell, was sold to Touchstone Pictures and produced. He was nominated for an Emmy for writing the HBO film,?The Tuskegee Airmen?starring Lawrence Fishburne and Cuba Gooding, Jr. The film went on to win a Peabody and several NAACP Image Awards. His screenplay for the Showtime film?Good Fences, which starred Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Glover and was produced by Spike Lee, was shortlisted by PEN Center West for best teleplay of the year. The film premiered at the Sundance Film festival. Mr. Ellis is both an alumnus of the Sundance Institute and a Sundance international mentor. He continues to teach screenwriting around the world and has taught or lectured at NYU, Yale, Harvard and the University of New Mexico. He has written screenplays for Paramount, Sony and Touchstone Pictures among others, developed television programs for USA Networks.
He was a writer on the Chris Rock-produced comedy program,?Totally Biased?with Kamau Bell for F/X and Fox.
One of the original bloggers for the?HuffingtonPost, Mr. Ellis has also contributed humor, essays and political commentary to?The New Yorker.com, The New York Times, GQ,?Playboy,?Vanity Fair,?The Washington Post,?The Los Angeles Times,?Salon?and NPR’s?All Things Considered.
Mr. Ellis has been interviewed on such pop-culture outlets as?The CBS Early Show,?The Brian Lehrer Show, KCRW’s?Which Way L.A.??and?The Treatment?with former?New York Times?film critic Elvis Mitchell, as well as?The E! True Hollywood Story. He was the subject of a half-hour PBS documentary and has been profiled twice in?The Los Angeles Times?and in?People. He was also featured in the book,?Why We Write: Personal Statements and Photographic Portraits of 25 Top Screenwriters.\
When Mr. Ellis was a recent graduate of Stanford University he published his seminal essay, “The New Black Aesthetic.” Since then it has been reprinted dozens of times, cited in over sixty scholarly texts, and the term “New Black Aesthetic,” along with “cultural mulatto,” also coined by Mr. Ellis, are now commonly cited by anyone seriously investigating the state of black popular culture.
True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality - Peabody Award Acceptance
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'The Long Way Around,' a New Fiction Podcast Written by Professor Trey Ellis, Premieres This Fall
Professor Trey Ellis is the author of “The Long Way Around,” a new fiction podcast that will premiere this fall.
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‘True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality’ By Professor Trey Ellis Wins Documentary Emmy Award
True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality, the new documentary by Professor Trey Ellis won an Emmy at the 41st News & Documentary Emmy Awards last night.?
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'True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality' and 'The Edge of Democracy' by Columbia Filmmakers Win Peabody Awards
True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality, the new documentary by Professor of Professional Practice?Trey Ellis?just won a?Peabody Award.
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'King in the Wilderness' by Professor Trey Ellis Takes Home an Emmy
King in the Wilderness, an HBO documentary produced by Professor Trey Ellis about the last three days of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s life, took home the Emmy for Outstanding Historical Documentary last night.
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Full Time Professor Trey Ellis Produces HBO Documentary About Martin Luther King Jr.
April 4th, 2018 was a historic day, as it marked the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.
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Associate Professor Trey Ellis Wins Top Prizes at NAACP Theatre Awards
Fly written by Associate Professor Trey Ellis and co-writen by Ricardo Kahn received three awards at The NAACP Theatre Awards, including Best Production.
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Trey Ellis Play Opens in New York
The play tells the story of four members of the Tuskegee Airmen, who during World War II became the first African-American military aviators in United States history.?
'Be Very Prepared' - by Trey Ellis
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