Kerry Ellis

Ellis made her first professional stage appearance in 1998 and went on to make her West End debut in the 2001 revival of My Fair Lady as an understudy for the role of Eliza Doolittle. In 2002, she landed the role of Meat in the original London cast of We Will Rock You and has subsequently played lead roles in musicals Les Misérables, Wicked (in the West End and on Broadway), Oliver! and Cats as well as appearing in national tours and concert productions of musicals like Miss Saigon, Chess, The War of the Worlds, RENT, and Anything Goes. Ellis, who has received several awards and nominations for her performances, has become recognised as the First Lady of West End musicals.^[1][2] She has also worked sporadically in film and television.


After meeting Queen guitarist Brian May in 2002, Ellis expanded her repertoire as a solo artist. She has released four studio albums Anthems (2010), which reached number 15 on the UK Albums Chart, the self-titled Kerry Ellis (2014), Golden Days (2017) and Feels Like Home (2020) as well as an extended play Wicked in Rock (2008) and a live album Acoustic by Candlelight (2013). Ellis also appears as a featured artist on several other albums. Ellis has performed in concerts across the world in addition to headlining solo concert tours like Anthems: The Tour and The Born Free Tour.


In addition to her musical work, Ellis involves herself in charity work for the Born Free Foundation with May and is the patron of several arts organisations. In 2019, Ellis received an honorary fellowship from the University of Suffolk.^[3]

Early life and training[edit]

Kerry Jane Ellis was born on 6 May 1979 in Haughley,^[4] near Stowmarket, in Suffolk, the daughter of Sandra Ann Reed and Terry John Ellis.^[5][6] Describing herself as a hyperactive young girl, she attended dance classes at the Ann Holland School of Theatre Dance and performed in local shows and pantomimes whilst also enjoying swimming and horse-riding.^[7][8] Her first stage role was in The Wizard of Oz at the Wolsey Theatre in nearby Ipswich where she played a Munchkin at the age of 9.^[7][8][9] After a successful audition, she also spent the summer of 1990 with the National Youth Music Theatre (NYMT).^[8][10]


When her parents took her to see the West End production of Les Misérables for her thirteenth birthday, "that's when I knew I wanted to be on the stage."^[8][11] Although she had not discovered her vocal ability until she was at college and had started working, Ellis cites her early influences as Liza Minnelli, Elaine Paige and Barbra Streisand; their music she would sing in her bedroom much to the disturbance of her older brother Andrew, now a keen fisherman.^[12][13] She has explained that fellow musical theatre actress Ruthie Henshall inspired her growing up: "[Henshall] was a success story from Suffolk … I think I identified with her because it was an actual story that I saw happen and was achievable. She was only a couple of years ahead of me and I could relate to her."^[14]


Whilst attending Stowmarket High School, she completed work experience with Starmakers, a company of holiday entertainers, at Potters Leisure Resort in Hopton-on-Sea.^[15] She also spent the summers of 1995 and 1997 with the company to earn money by singing many of their cabaret shows.^[16] Having left school at 16, Ellis turned to Laine Theatre Arts, an independent performing arts college, where she spent three years to gain a national diploma in musical theatre. "It was an incredible three years where I learnt a great deal about myself, the industry and came away feeling part of something special," she remembers.^[17] Ellis was also in the same year as fellow musical theatre actress Louise Dearman.^[18] By the time she graduated in 1998, Ellis had appeared in a number of professional pantomimes for E&B productions including Dick Whittington (1995) and Aladdin (1996) across theatres in the UK as well as performing the title role in Cinderella (1997) at the Cliffs Pavilion in Southend-on-Sea.^[8][19]