Scott Ellis

American director

Scott Ellis
Born	(1957-04-19) April 19, 1957 (age 67) Washington, DC, U.S.
Education	Art Institute of Chicago (BFA)
Occupation(s)	Director, executive producer, actor
Years active	1980–present

Scott Ellis (born April 19, 1957) is an American stage director, actor, and television director.

Life and career

Ellis graduated from Goodman School of Drama at the Art Institute of Chicago (now at DePaul University) in Chicago.^[1] He also graduated from James W. Robinson Secondary School, in Fairfax, Virginia, in 1975. He studied acting at HB Studio^[2] in New York City. Ellis has a twin brother named Mark Ellis, who is the Executive Director of the International Bar Association.

Before he became a director, Ellis was a successful stage actor; he performed on Broadway in the original casts of the 1980 original musical Musical Chairs and The Rink with Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera.^[3]^[4]

He has directed numerous Off-Broadway and Broadway productions, as well as the New York City Opera Company revivals at the New York State Theater: A Little Night Music (1990) and 110 in the Shade (1992).

Ellis has been the Associate Artistic Director for the Roundabout Theatre since 1998.^[5]

He has been nominated for the Tony Award as Best Director nine times: the revival of She Loves Me (1994), Steel Pier (1997), the revival of 1776 (1998), Twelve Angry Men (2005), Curtains (2007), the revival of The Mystery of Edwin Drood (2013), the revival of You Can't Take It with You (2015), another revival of She Loves Me (2016), and Tootsie (2019). He received the 1991 Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Director of a Musical, for And The World Goes Round. He won the Olivier Award as Best Director, Musical, for She Loves Me.^[6]

He was the executive producer for the television drama Weeds on Showtime, and has directed television episodes of Modern Family, Nurse Jackie, The Good Wife, Hung, 30 Rock, Desperate Housewives, The Closer and Frasier.^[1] He received an Emmy Award nomination in 2007 for directing the episode "The Break Up" of the comedy series 30 Rock.

In 2010, Playbill announced that Ellis was expected to direct upcoming musical adaptations of the 1930s films The Blue Angel and Little Miss Marker. Both would have books by David Thompson.^[7]

Credits

Stage

Musical Chairs (1980) (as an actor)
The Rink (1984) (as an actor)
Billy Bishop Goes to War (1987) (as an actor, Whole Theatre Co.)
And the World Goes 'Round (1991)
She Loves Me (1993)
A Month in the Country (1995) starring Helen Mirren
Steel Pier (1997)
1776 (1997)
Present Laughter (1998)
The Rainmaker (1999)
The Man Who Had All the Luck (2002)
The Boys from Syracuse (2002)
Twelve Angry Men (2004)
The Little Dog Laughed (2006)
Curtains (2007)
Gruesome Playground Injuries (2011)
Harvey (2012)
The Mystery of Edwin Drood (2012)
You Can't Take It with You (2014)
The Elephant Man (2014) starring Bradley Cooper
On the Twentieth Century (2015)
She Loves Me (2016)
Kiss Me, Kate (2019)
Tootsie (2019)
Take Me Out (2022)

Television

Frasier (2000–04)
Hope & Faith (2005–06)
Out of Practice (2005)
Stacked (2005)
30 Rock (2006)
Desperate Housewives (2008)
Weeds (2008–11)
Hung (2009)
The Good Wife episode "Home" (2009)^[8]
Nurse Jackie (2009)
Running Wilde (2010)
Modern Family (2010–11)
Mad Love (2011)
2 Broke Girls (2011–13)
Guys with Kids (2012)
The New Normal (2012–13)
The Michael J. Fox Show (2013–14)
Dads episode: "Comic Book Issues" (2013)
Us & Them episode: "Upstairs & Downstairs" (2014)
Mixology episode: "Dominic & Stacey" (2014)
Undateable (2014)
One Big Happy episode: "Pilot" (2015)
Dr. Ken (2015–16)
Superior Donuts (2017)
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017–18)
A Christmas Story Live! (2017)
Divorce (2018)
Fam (2019)
Carol's Second Act (2019–20)
All Rise episode: "What The Bailiff Saw" (2020)
Tommy episode: "Cause of Death" (2020)

References

Notes

^ ^a ^b "Scot Ellis" pbs.org, accessed June 7, 2013
^ HB Studio Alumni
^ Ellis Nassour. "Scott Ellis Is an Actor's Director". Playbill date: November 19, 2008 accessed: March 8, 2016
^ Scott Ellis at the Internet Broadway Database
^ "Scott Ellis Takes a New Roundabout Post" The New York Times (webcache), September 4, 1998
^ "Olivier Awards, 1995" olivierawards.com, retrieved October 24, 2017
^ Robert Simonson. "Scottsboro Librettist David Thompson Working on New Musicals With Stew, Scott Ellis". Playbill, date: April 1, 2010 accessed: March 8, 2016
^ Scott Ellis (director), Dee Johnson (writer) (2009-10-06). "Home". The Good Wife. Season 1. Episode 3. CBS.

Bibliography

"Scott Ellis Biography". filmreference. 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-01.
"PLAYBILL.COM'S BRIEF ENCOUNTER with Scott Ellis" by Ernio Hernandez, Playbill.com, January 26, 2006
Ellis Bio American Theatre Wing

External links

Scott Ellis at the Internet Broadway Database
Scott Ellis at IMDb

Awards for Scott Ellis
v t e Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical
1975–2000	Arthur Laurents (1975) Michael Bennett (1976) Martin Charnin (1977) Peter Masterson and Tommy Tune (1978) Harold Prince (1979) Harold Prince (1980) Wilford Leach (1981) Tommy Tune (1982) George Abbott (1983) James Lapine (1984) No Award (1985) Wilford Leach (1986) Mike Ockrent (1987) Harold Prince (1988) Tommy Tune (1990) Scott Ellis (1991) Jerry Zaks (1992) Des McAnuff (1993) Nicholas Hytner (1994) Harold Prince (1995) Christopher Renshaw (1996) Walter Bobbie (1997) Julie Taymor (1998) Matthew Bourne (1999) Michael Blakemore (2000)
2001–present	Susan Stroman (2001) Michael Mayer (2002) Jack O'Brien (2003) Joe Mantello (2004) James Lapine (2005) John Doyle (2006) Michael Mayer (2007) Bartlett Sher (2008) Stephen Daldry (2009) Michael Mayer (2010) Casey Nicholaw and Trey Parker (2011) John Tiffany (2012) Diane Paulus (2013) Darko Tresnjak (2014) Thomas Kail (2015) John Doyle / Bartlett Sher (2016) Rachel Chavkin / David Cromer (2017) Tina Landau (2018) Rachel Chavkin (2019) Stephen Brackett (2020) No Award (2021) Marianne Elliott (2022) Thomas Kail (2023)