Meet Marcus Ellison Jr. | Actor/Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Marcus Ellison Jr. and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Marcus, what role has risk played in your life or career?
The entire industry that I’ve been called to (the film industry) is predicated on risk, so I have to at least make a relative peace with the concept of it to proceed. I’ve taken a lot of risks in my career as an actor/director/editor, the biggest of which being uprooting my life back in Maryland 3 years ago and moving to Los Angeles in my 30s at the tail end of the pandemic. As the old adage goes though, nothing worth having comes easy, thus the risk.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Having talked about my acting before with y’all, I’ll spotlight my directing this time around. Despite getting to acting first, directing was my first dream. When I was a kid, I assumed that acting in Hollywood wasn’t for black people so I decided that I wanted to craft stories. Due to lack of resources, the stories largely just stayed in my head, in notebooks or word documents; but the desire was always there until I finally ripped the bandaid off last year in July. My debut film, Takeout (which is now showing at the Micheaux Film Festival), came about one random night when Madeline & I were talking about how most relationships end not from a singular event, but from a death by a thousand cuts. From that moment she whipped out her white board and we mapped out the entire short & wrote the script that night.

If you would’ve asked little Marcus what his first 2 films as a director would’ve been about, he would’ve for sure said, “Superman”; but instead I’ve got two lowkey relationship dramas with high emotional stakes under my belt. I definitely still hope to try my hand at bigger, more ambitious projects down the line, but one thing that I’ve learned in my time on sets of varying sizes is that ambition is expensive. My hope is if I can learn to do a lot with a little, then once I get my hands on more I’ll be able to use those resources wisely. Feel free to call me out in the future if I don’t accomplish that!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Well seeing as how both of my best friends actually lived in LA before I did, I’ll just use the prompt for a friend who’s never been. I’d probably show them my favorite cafe in the Valley, Black Heart Coffee or take them to North Hollywood Diner to start out. I’d for sure take them to Universal CityWalk to catch a movie, grab dinner and just walk around. If they were in the mood to grab drinks I’d take them to Lowboy, Father’s Office or Wolf & Crane. As for other food spots I’d have them check out Pasta Sisters, KazuNori, Burosu Ramen, Aki Shabu Ktown, Casa Vega, Broad Street Oyster Company or Formosa Cafe. If they were in the mood for a beach I’d take the to Dockweiler and if they wanted to hike I’d probably take them to the secret waterfall in Escondido Falls.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Oof, that’s a difficult question because there are SO many people that have helped & encouraged me throughout my journey as a creative. If I had to narrow it down though, I’d specifically like to shout-out my two favorite people on the planet, Josiah Bradley & Madeline Rooks. Josiah’s my best & oldest friend (we literally met when we were babies) and was my first ever creative partner. Madeline is my manager and quite possibly my greatest creative partner (we’ve already produced two films together). The two of them, more than anyone have kept my creative spark alive and I can genuinely say that I wouldn’t be where I am right now without them.

Website: https://vimeo.com/user33409261

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inc0g.negr0/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcus-ellison-jr-490a33b1/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarcusEllisonJr/

Image Credits
Bayou Elom
Jeremy David