Ella Jane

Roth was born in Manhattan and raised in Westchester County, New York to a Jewish family.^[1][2] Her father, a jazz pianist, named her after singer Ella Fitzgerald.^[2] She began playing the piano when she was four years old and she started songwriting when she was eleven.^[3] Roth attended Tufts University in the fall of 2020 as an English major.^[4][3] She dropped out to move to Brooklyn and pursue music full-time.^[3][1]

In February 2020, she independently released "The City" using GarageBand.^[5] This was followed "Nothing Else I Could Do" in July 2020.^[5] It was written in isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic after a creative and emotional rut.^[4] For her final creative project in AP English Literature and Composition, she chose to write a song inspired by The Great Gatsby.^[4] She posted the song on TikTok in October 2020. The Tiktok video of her performance of the song went viral, gathering over 2 million views.^[4] Roth was signed to Fader Label in 2020. Following the viral success of “Nothing Else I Could Do” on TikTok, she signed with the label later that year.^[6]

Fader Label released Ella Jane's debut album, This is Not What it Looks Like!, on September 10, 2021.^[7][8] Her single, "Calling Card," released on October 26, 2021 and has over 500,000 streams on Spotify.^[9] Roth performed her track "Calling Card" on Elton John's Rocket Hour radio show on Apple Music.^[3]

In 2022, "Nothing Else I Could Do" was featured as part of the soundtrack of the Netflix TV series, Heartstopper.^[10][11] In 2022, she relocated to Los Angeles after living for a year in Brooklyn.^[1] On October 28, 2022, Roth released her second album, Marginalia.^[12] In 2022, she released the pop song "Sore Loser" with Charlie Hickey.^[13] Roth cites singers Lorde, Taylor Swift, and Phoebe Bridgers, among her lyrical influences.^[12] In 2023, Ella Jane posted on her Instagram the album "Circuitos Sintéticos" by Brazilian music producer Arlyzinho BR,^[14][15] gaining recognition on various Brazilian news portals.^[16][17] As of 2026, Ella Jane continues to release new music, including singles such as “When I Was Beautiful,” “10-Blade,” “Sky King,” and “Seattle,” which were released in late 2025 and are on major streaming platforms, like Apple Music and Spotify.