He later starred in the horror film Escape Room (2019), and appeared in Top Gun: Maverick (2022).

[10] He launched his career as a professional actor in 2005, when he appeared briefly in single episodes of the television series Invasion and Related.

[10] In August 2015, it was announced that Ellis has joined the cast of HBO's comedy series Insecure, which premiered in October 2016.

[3] In 2020, Ellis started hosting The Untold Story: Policing, a four-part podcast series co-produced by Campaign Zero[15] and Lemonada Media Archived December 2, 2020, at the Wayback Machine.

Ellis serves as the series’ host, as well as an executive producer alongside DeRay Mckesson, Stephanie Wittels Wachs, and Jessica Cordova Kramer.