Biography
Nelsan Ellis (born c. 1978) was an award-winning American film and television actor and playwright, perhaps best known as Lafayette Reynolds on HBO's True Blood. He died on July 8, 2017, in Los Angeles, California, from complications with heart failure at the age of 39. Description above from the Wikipedia article Nelsan Ellis, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
Complete Filmography

True to the Game
2017
as Tyrik
Based on the Terri Woods best selling novel, True to the Game is the love story of Quadir Richards, a charismatic drug lord, and Gena Rollins, a young...

Little Boxes
2017
as Mack
It's the summer before 6th grade, and Clark is the new-in-town biracial kid in a sea of white. Discovering that to be cool he needs to act 'more black...

Roxanne Roxanne
2017
as Mr. Lester
The most feared battle emcee in the early 1980s in Queens, New York, was a fierce teenager from the Queensbridge projects. At the age of 14, Roxanne S...

The Stanford Prison Experiment
2015
as Jesse Fletcher
In 1971, Stanford's Professor Philip Zimbardo conducts a controversial psychology experiment in which college students pretend to be either prisoners ...

Get on Up
2014
as Bobby Byrd
A chronicle of James Brown's rise from extreme poverty to become one of the most influential musicians in history.

Gods Behaving Badly
2013
as Dionysus
Greek gods living in modern-day New York intervene in the lives of a young couple.

The Butler
2013
as Martin Luther King Jr.
A look at the life of Cecil Gaines, who served eight presidents as the White House's head butler from 1952 to 1986, and had a unique front-row seat as...

The Reluctant Fundamentalist
2013
as Wainwright
In New York, a Pakistani native finds that his American Dream has collapsed in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The Help
2011
as Henry The Waiter
Aibileen Clark is a middle-aged African-American maid who has spent her life raising white children and has recently lost her only son; Minny Jackson ...

Secretariat
2010
as Eddie Sweat
Housewife and mother Penny Chenery agrees to take over her ailing father's Virginia-based Meadow Stables, despite her lack of horse-racing knowledge. ...

Page 36
2010
Director, Story
To save his ailing son from certain death, a father voluntarily sells himself into slavery through an underground corporation. After entering into a c...

The Soloist
2009
as David Carter
A Los Angeles journalist befriends a homeless Juilliard-trained musician, while looking for a new article for the paper.

The Express
2008
as Will Davis, Jr.
Follow the inspirational life of college football hero Ernie Davis, the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy.

Warm Springs
2005
as Roy Collier
Franklin Roosevelt, left a paraplegic from polio at 39 years of age, seeks out a miracle cure in the backwoods of Georgia.