Ross directed and co-wrote the screenplay for the 2024 film adaptation of the novel The Nickel Boys (2019), for which he won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director,[1][2][3] and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Ross was born in Frankfurt, Germany, and raised in Fairfax, Virginia, where he attended Lake Braddock Secondary School.

[1][5] He later earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in photography from the Rhode Island School of Design.

[13] Easter Snap, Ross' documentary short depicting five men preparing a hog to be butchered in a ritualistic fashion, debuted at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.

A book of Ross' work titled Spell Time, Practice, American, Body was released in 2023.