Kerry Ellis

Born in Suffolk in 1979, Kerry Ellis is a West End actress. She attended the Ann Holland School of Theatre Dance, and spent the summer swith the National Youth Music Theatre. She trained at Laine Theatre Arts, gaining a national diploma in musical theatre. 

Ellis started her stage career acting in touring pantomime productions, following which she became Marti Webb’s understudy in The Magic of Musicals in 1998. In 2001, she performed in the London revival of My Fair Lady as a swing for Eliza Doolittle, playing the role on five occasions. The production played at the Lyttelton Theatre before transferring to the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. She then took on the role of Meat in the original cast of We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre, from 2002 to 2004.

Ellis then joined the cast of Les Miserables in 2005, playing the role of Fantine before leaving the cast in 2006 to take on her biggest role to date; Elphaba in Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre. Hired as standby to Tony award winner Idina Menzel, who reprised her Broadway turn as Elphaba in the West End for the first three months of the run, Ellis succeeded her in the role full time in January 2007 and went on to play the character for almost three years, including a six-month run in the Broadway production in New York.

In 2010, she played Nancy in Cameron Mackintosh's revival of Oliver! at Theatre Royal Drury Lane. In 2013, she performed alongside Lee Mead in West End Men- The Musicals at the Vaudeville Theatre. Following this, she landed the role of Grizabella in Cats at the London Palladium, taking over from Nicole Scherzinger.

Ellis returned to the West End in 2016, starring in Murder Ballad at the Arts Theatre. She played Sara in a cast including Ramin Karimloo, Norman Bowman and Victoria Hamilton-Barritt.