Her father, Edward C. Ellis, was a Shakespearean actor who began her career by putting her behind the curtain and on the stage from a very early age.

Ellis began her work as a director with the help of her husband, theatre manager Frank Baker.

Several times Ellis was head of her own stock companies, travelling or stationary, and wrote, produced, directed, and acted in many plays.

Including members like Rachel Crothers, this group was a way for Ellis to network with other women in the industry.

Her first writing attempt was out of necessity, when she and her brother, Edward, were stranded on the road by the unexpected disbanding of their theatrical company.

These works include: Incarnation: A Plea from the Masters, (1936), Open the Door!, (1935), We Knew These Men, (1943) and Love in the Afterlife, (1956) She also wrote silent film scenarios for Samuel Goldwyn.

Including members like Rachel Crothers, this group was a way for Ellis to network with other women in the industry.

Although Ellis rejected the suffragette title, she was the most vocal directress at the time when it came to her political beliefs concerning women.

Ellis’s commercial success as a playwright and director meant that she could present productions with feminist narratives.

Having never categorized her work as feminist, she was able to present plays that disrupted expectations of gender roles, particularly the notion that women were passively happy in the domestic sphere.

The men like first to put the company through the rough outline of the play, the mechanics as we say, leaving the characterizations to be developed later along with details and business.

[3] A major element of Ellis’ directing theory was maintaining an actor’s agency regarding character interpretations.