Ellis Howard

(He/Him)

Ellis’ breakthrough project is the TV drama What It Feels Like for a Girl.

Ellis is a strong believer in the socio-political adage that how a society treats its most vulnerable is the best metric of its humanity. With What It Feels Like for a Girl (2025), Ellis became the face and spirit of a major BBC series exploring exactly that. The critically-acclaimed series, based on Paris Lees’ 2021 trans coming-of-age memoir, has opened up vital conversations on gender identity, class, and morality, with Ellis praised for his magnetic, layered, and vibrant central performance.

Initially, Ellis was thrust into acting as a way to get him out of his Liverpool home, shared with two sisters and a large dog, his seafarer father and NHS worker mother signing him up for free classes at local drama club Rare Studio. He discovered acting provided the perfect opportunity for artistic expression and telling authentic stories like Help (2021) – which he had a small part in – that are necessary to jolt people awake on essential issues.

In their own words…

“I don’t know where my politics come from, it’s always been a part of the fabric of my life. Why do people in my community not get opportunity in a way that it seems a lot of other young people who won the lottery at birth do? BAFTA Breakthrough doesn’t happen to a kid like me. I feel so grateful and excited but also disorientated… Maybe that’s a working-class thing. I’m just trying to stay grounded and rooted, and I feel grateful that people loved [What It Feels Like for a Girl].”