Tracee Ellis Ross

Film and television actress Tracee Ellis Ross is best-known for her roles on TV series such as Girlfriends (Joan) and the hit ABC series Black-ish (Rainbow), but finally got to flex her singing muscles in the 2020 film The High Note. About a fictional R&B singer, its soundtrack heavily featured Ross on songs including "Love Myself," which doubled as her debut single.
The daughter of legendary Motown singer Diana Ross and music manager Robert Ellis Silberstein, Tracee Ellis Ross (born Tracee Joy Silberstein) is a native of Los Angeles. Her sister Rhonda Ross is also an actress and singer, and sister Chudney Lane Silberstein became a TV producer. Among her other siblings are British singer/songwriter Leona Naess and actor/musician Evan Ross (Evan Olav Næss) from her mother's remarriage to Arne Næss, Jr. in 1985. Tracee studied in Manhattan, the Bronx, and Rolle, Switzerland before earning a degree in theater from Brown University in 1994.
Ross made her feature-film debut not long after in 1996's Far Harbor, a drama set on Long Island. She had a breakout year in 2000, landing a supporting role in the Diane Keaton film Hanging Up and being cast as a lead on the UPN sitcom Girlfriends. It enjoyed an eight-season run beginning in September 2000. During that time, Ross appeared in several independent films as well as in the 2007 TV movie Life Support, with Queen Latifah. The final episode of Girlfriends aired on February 11, 2008. More parts on the big and small screen followed, including a recurring role on CSI in 2011. That year, she appeared in the first 25 episodes of the BET series Reed Between the Lines starring opposite Malcolm-Jamal Warner. She then joined Anthony Anderson on the long-running sitcom Black-ish, which premiered in September of 2014. During her first few seasons on the show, she could also be spotted in guest parts on series including Broad City and Portlandia. She hosted the American Music Awards in 2017 and launched a line of hair-care products with ingredients that were safe for curls the following year (Juicy and Joyful).
In 2019, Ross co-created the Black-ish spinoff Mixed-Ish for ABC. It premiered that October with Ross as the series' narrator. That same year, she was cast as fictional R&B singer Grace Davis in the film The High Note, which co-starred Dakota Johnson as her personal assistant. Released to drive-ins and on demand in May 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, the accompanying soundtrack release featured a half-dozen tracks performed by Ross. Issued by Republic Records, soundtrack highlight "Love Myself" became her first single that same month. ~ Marcy Donelson