Ella Thomas was born to an Eritrean mother from Asmara and an American Air Force officer, who was stationed in the Province of Eritrea.

Around this time, Thomas first developed an appreciation for the performing arts, and began taking part in local school and theater productions.

[3] Thomas has guest starred as Agent Deborah Meade on CSI: NY and played one of the lead characters, Anna Roberts, in The Storm miniseries on NBC.

[5] Thomas also guest starred in the episode "Skin" of the Karl Urban and Michael Ealy helmed FOX series Almost Human.

[7] She completed a recurring arc on season 4 of ABC's Mistresses [8]as well as Antoine Fuqua's series for DirectTV Ice in the role of Lala Agabaria.