HOLLYWOOD—Nelsan Ellis who portrays the flamboyantly gay Lafayette Reynolds in Alan Ball’s and HBO’s hit vampire series “True Blood” is a distinguished actor who attended the prestigious acting program at Juilliard and in 2008 the actor won from the Satellite award for Best Supporting Actor for his work on “True Blood.” Ellis also won raves when he wrote a play called “Ugly,” an almost autobiographical piece about the devastating effects of domestic abuse, after his sister Alice was shot by her husband in 2002. Nelsan staged the play while a student at Julliard. Received the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts' Martin E. Segal Award for his efforts.

Sam Trammell, Sam Courtesy: Link 81 Collection

Today Ellis is involved with a film called “Secretariat,” which involves the life story of Penny Chenery, owner of the racehorse Secretariat, who won the Triple Crown in 1973. Nelsan is producing and acting in the film, which is set to be released next fall.

From “The Soloist” to “The Express,” Nelsan Ellis is making his mark as an actor and performer in films and has made many television appearances on hit shows like “Veronica Mars,” “Without a Trace” and “Lost.” Fans however have come to love Ellis in the over-the-top fem role as the gay queen of Bon Temps. Ellis embraced the role and throughout his character’s troubled storylines, which have included selling V [vampire’s blood], which is used as an illegal drug in the “True Blood” series and being kidnapped by Eric and used as food for the vampires for weeks before being saved by his childhood friend Sookie, who is played by Oscar winner Anna Paquin, to dealing with the maenad Maryann and her coven of evil doers.

Nelsan Ellis, Lafayette, Courtesy: HBO

Fans can always count on Ellis’s strong performance and comedic delivery of lines, which even helps to break the tension of the sometimes overly intense yet incredibly written drama. When cousin Tara, played by Rutina Wesley was being abused by her boyfriend Eggs, you could see the pain in Ellis’s eyes and know that because of the turmoil of his sister to domestic violence, Lafayette would never tolerate his cousin being treated that way.

In a show with hunks like Ryan Kwanten, Alexander Skarsgard and Stephen Moyer, unsung heroes like Ellis and Sam Trammell, who portrays shape shifter Sam Merlotte, are important as supporting actors on the cult classic series. Trammell’s career and training is also very prestigious. Trammell made waves and received raves early on in his career when he appeared on the New York stage while building a maverick career in mostly independent features. Sam also attended Brown University where he caught the acting bug in his senior year.

While doing “Ah, Wilderness!” on the Broadway stage in 1997, he received a Tony award nomination the following year for the revival of the great Eugene O’Neill play. His TV work includes,“Numb3rs,” “Judging Amy,” “Cold Case” and Medium,” to name just a few of the prolific actor’s appearances.

However, on the HBO series “True Blood,” Sam is a shape shifter, able to turn into any creature once he sees it, then imprints on the species, which came in handy a lot last season when the evil Maryann was chasing him down the dark road ready to devour him, but he was able to see an owl, imprint on it and quickly change to one and fly away for his own safety. Still battling Maryann, he was able to turn into a fly while in a jail cell, before Maryann could get to him.

Outlandish plots is what Alan Ball‘s “True Blood” is all about. Though these two actors, Sam Trammell and Nelsan Ellis, are such capable and brilliant thespians, they keep the show popular as the unsung heroes who not only save the day, but make fans laugh and cry every week while rooting for them to win over evil.

“True Blood” airs on HBO.