Tracee Ellis Ross

In 2020, Ross played the leading role as Grace Davis, the legendary superstar singer, in the musical comedy-drama film The High Note for Focus Features. The High Note marks the first big-screen role for Ross since the 2007 comedy-drama Daddy’s Little Girls. The film was scheduled to be theatrically released on May 8, 2020, but the theatrical release was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film later moved release date to May 29, 2020, through video on demand. In The High Note made her singing debut, recording soundtrack album titled The High Note (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack). The lead single, pop-ballad "Love Myself" was released on May 15, 2020 through Republic Records.

In 2019, Ross created, alongside Kenya Barris, a prequel spin-off of Black-ish called Mixed-ish. Ross serves as a narrator for the series starring Tika Sumpter and Mark-Paul Gosselaar. Ross also went to star in and executive produce adult animated comedy Jodie, the first in a series of spin-offs based on MTV's Daria franchise. Ross will voice the title character, Jodie.

As of 2018, as CEO of Pattern Beauty LLC of El Segundo, California, Ross produces a line of '"Juicy and Joyful"' beauty hair care products made with safe ingredients for curls and promotes support organizations to empower women and people of color. A Little Late with Lilly Singh S1 E4 (TV series), an NBCUniversal (TV network) daily late-night TV talk show format series discussing popular culture.

In 2015, Ross was awarded an honorary doctorate of fine art (honoris causa) by Brown University.

Ross hosted the BET Awards in 2015 and 2016, and the American Music Awards in 2017, 2018 and 2019. She also hosted The Fashion Awards in 2019.

Since 2014, Ross has played the starring role of Dr. Rainbow Johnson in the ABC comedy series Black-ish. Her work on the series has earned her three NAACP Image Awards and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy. She has also received nominations for two Critics' Choice Television Awards and three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. In 2019, she co-created a prequel spin-off of Black-ish titled Mixed-ish. In 2020, Ross starred and recorded the soundtrack album for the musical film, The High Note.

Ross's biggest career achievement came when she landed the lead role in the hit UPN/CW series Girlfriends, starring as the show's main protagonist Joan Carol Clayton — a successful (and often neurotic) lawyer looking for love, challenges, and adventure. The series centered on four (later three) young African-American women, and their male best friend. In 2007, Ross won an NAACP Image Award in the category, Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series for her role on the series. She won a second Image Award for the role in 2009. In 2007, Ross starred with her brother Evan Ross and Queen Latifah in the HBO movie Life Support. That same year, she appeared in the Tyler Perry theatrical movie Daddy's Little Girls. She appeared in the 2009 film Labor Pains.

In 2014, Ross was cast in the ABC comedy series Black-ish, opposite Anthony Anderson. She plays the female lead role of Dr. Rainbow Johnson. The series debuted with generally positive reviews from critics. Ross received three NAACP Image Awards and received nominations for two Critics' Choice Television Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards and two Screen Actors Guild Awards for her performance in the series. Ross's 2016 nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series was the first for an African-American woman in that category in 30 years. The same year, Ross and Anderson faced off on Spike's Lip Sync Battle. She emerged victorious with performances of Nicki Minaj's "Super Bass" and Pat Benatar's "Love Is a Battlefield".

Ross starred in the sitcom Reed Between the Lines with Malcolm-Jamal Warner airing on BET starting in October 2011. She won a third NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series in 2012 for her performance in the series. In August 2012, it was announced that Ross would not return for Season Two. In 2011, she appeared in the Lifetime film Five directed by Alicia Keys. The performance in the film earned her nominations for an NAACP Image Award and Black Reel Awards for Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie or Mini-Series. In 2012, Ross starred in the NBC drama pilot Bad Girls.

In 2010, she appeared in an episode of Private Practice as a pregnant doctor. In 2011, Ross appeared in four episodes of CSI as the estranged wife of Laurence Fishburne's character.

Ross is the daughter of actress and Motown recording artist Diana Ross and her ex-husband Robert Ellis Silberstein. She began acting in independent films and variety series. She hosted the pop-culture magazine The Dish on Lifetime. From 2000 to 2008, she played the starring role of Joan Clayton in the UPN/CW comedy series Girlfriends, for which she received two NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series. She also has appeared in the films Hanging Up (2000), I-See-You.Com (2006), and Daddy's Little Girls (2007), before returning to television playing Dr. Carla Reed on the BET sitcom Reed Between the Lines (2011), for which she received her third NAACP Image Award.

Ross made her big-screen debut in 1996, playing a Jewish/African-American woman in the independent feature film Far Harbor. The following year, she debuted as host of The Dish, a Lifetime TV magazine series keeping tabs on popular culture. In 1998, she starred as a former high school track star who remained silent about having been abused at the hands of a coach, in the NBC made-for-TV movie Race Against Fear: A Moment of Truth. Her next role was an independent feature film titled Sue. In 2000, she landed her first major studio role in Diane Keaton's Hanging Up. That same year, she broke into comedy as a regular performer in the MTV series The Lyricist Lounge Show, a hip-hop variety series mixing music, dramatic sketches, and comedic skits. In February 2006 she starred in Kanye West’s "Touch The Sky" MTV music video, playing the role of the best friend of Kanye's ex.

Ross attended The Dalton School in Manhattan, Riverdale Country School in the Bronx and the Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland. She was a model in her teens. She attended Brown University, where she appeared in plays, and graduated in 1994 with a theatre degree. She later worked in the fashion industry, as a model and contributing fashion editor to Mirabella and New York magazines.

When her mother married Arne Næss Jr. in 1985, Tracee gained three step-siblings: Katinka, Christoffer, and folk singer Leona Naess; she remains on close terms with all of them. Before her mother and Naess divorced in 1999, they welcomed her two half-brothers, Ross Arne in 1987 and Evan Olav in 1988. After the divorce Naess married Camilla Astrup.

Tracee Joy Silberstein (born October 29, 1972), known professionally as Tracee Ellis Ross, is an American actress, singer and television host. She is known for her lead roles in the comedy television series Girlfriends (2000–2008) and Black-ish (2014–present). Ross owns Pattern Beauty, the hair-care line for curly hair.