Born in Cameroon, Ellie Foumbi moved to the United States at the age
of five. Growing up in the suburbs of New York City, she attended the
French-American School of New York where she was introduced to classic
French theatre and the richness of French cinema. She then attended
Fordham University, where her love for the arts deepened.After studying at The New York Film Academy (NYFA), she had the privilege of working as a production assistant on Peter Brook's production of Tierno Bokar and worked very closely with acclaimed late Malian actor Sotigui Kouyate, who became her mentor. This experience incited not only her passion for theatre but her desire to hone her craft. What followed was an intensive Method training with Thurman E. Scott at the Actors' Theatre Workshop.
Soon, Ellie found herself on stage in plays like The Pain Bearer, Voices of Africa and The Riverside Symphony, which ran as part of The Planet Connections Theatre Festivity and was nominated for several awards. In film, she is most proud of her work in Say Grace Before Drowning, where she tackled the lead role of Grace, a war refugee with deep physical and emotional scars who struggles to rebuild her life in America. She had to push beyond her comfort zone in order to reveal the unraveling of Grace's fragile mental state.
Ellie continues to satisfy her voracious appetite for both classic and contemporary literature and devotes a good deal of her time to writing poetry and developing her own material.
She decided to pursue acting professionally after reading The Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpilman and What Should I do With My Life? by Po Bronson.She started playing tennis at the age of seven and has watched every single grand slam competition since then
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