[1] She grew up in Howard County, Maryland and outside Washington, D.C. As a teenager she competed in the hunter-jumper and equitation disciplines, and stopped riding at age 17 after suffering from a fall.
[14] Early in her career Ellis worked with Earl G. Graves[16] as a marketing manager at the Pepsi-Cola Company.
[6] While working on the MTV Awards with Reebok[16] in 1995,[7] she met an executive from Columbia Records in Manhattan’s Bryant Park.
"[20] As general manager she oversaw the unit's day-to-day operations and worked on Urban Music matters with Sony's US labels such as Columbia and Epic.
[8][5] In December 2006, Ellis was appointed executive vice president of Sony Music Label Group.
[6] On March 5, 2009[22] Ellis was a panelist on 'Trends in Venture Capital and Private Equity'[23] at the Billboard Music & Money Symposium.
[25] Starting in 2006 she was named to Billboard's “Most Powerful [20] Women In Music” list for four consecutive years,[14] ranking 3 in 2006,[5] 3 in 2007,[7] and 9 in 2008.
[26] She was ranked 50 on the "Most Creative People" list put out in 2009 by Fast Company,[10] and Black Enterprise included her in its 2011 ”Top Women Executives Behind the Scenes" feature.