Ellen Adair

Ellen Adair was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Kathleen A. Foster, an Art Historian, and Henry Glassie, a Folklorist and Ethnomusicologist. Growing up, their parents' fieldwork resulted in the family living many different places.^[7]

Adair earned a BA in English from Boston University, and spent an erasmus year at the University of Oxford. During their time in Boston they began to work professionally as an actor.^[8]

Adair made their professional stage debut in 2005 as Thomasina in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia at The Publick Theatre in Boston, earning an IRNE Award nomination for Best Actress.^[9] Over the next four years, they would prove a fixture in Boston theatre, appearing in numerous productions with Huntington Theatre Company, Lyric Stage Boston, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Actors' Shakespeare Project, SpeakEasy Stage Company, and New Repertory Theatre.^[10]

In 2006 Adair made their television debut as a guest star on the Showtime crime series Brotherhood. From 2009-2010 they appeared as Nurse Gretchen Taylor on the long-running CBS soap opera As the World Turns.^[11] Adair's breakthrough role came in 2015, when they were cast as ADA Bridget Saltire in the NBC miniseries The Slap.^[12] In 2017 Adair appeared in season 2 of the Showtime series Billions.^[13] Their character Graff was a portfolio manager at Axe Capital, and an employee of Damien Lewis's character Bobby Axelrod. The following year, Adair had a recurring arc as antagonist Janet Bayne on season 7 of the Showtime series Homeland.^[14] Later that same year Adair appeared as Bess McTeer on season 2 of the USA anthology series The Sinner.^[15]

Adair made their film debut as Jen in the 2013 horror film The Unwanted.^[16] In 2019 they starred opposite Omar Epps in the slasher film Trick.^[17] In 2022 Adair appeared the independent drama film Love and Communication, which explores parenting a young child on the autism spectrum.^[18] In 2023 they starred in the horror films Cryptid^[19] and Herd.^[20] For the later film, Awards Daily included Adair among their "Best Horror Performances of 2023."^[21]

In addition to acting, Adair is also a published poet and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.^[22] Their debut poetry collection Curtain Speech was published by Pen & Anvil Press in 2015.^[23]

In 2013 Adair married fellow actor Eric Gilde, with whom they co-founded Happy Few Theatre Company. They live together in Jackson Heights, Queens.^[24]

Adair is vocal fan of the Philadelphia Phillies, and regularly appears as a sports analyst on the MLB Network’s Off Base. They've also appeared on Hot Stove, MLB Now, and MLB Central.^[25]

Adair is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns.^[26][27]

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2013	The Unwanted	Jen		[28]
2019	Trick	Lisa Jayne		[28]
2022	Love and Communication	Julia		[28]
2023	Cryptid	Harriet		[28]
2023	Herd	Jamie Miller		[28]
2025	Womb	Martha		[28]
2025	The Housemaid	Lisa		[29]

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2006	Brotherhood	Jamie Finnerty	Episode: "Matthew 22:10"	[30]
2007-2009	American Masters	Various	3 episodes	[28]
2009-2010	As the World Turns	Gretchen Taylor	Recurring, Season 54	[30]
2010	God in America	Sister Mary Johnson	Episode: "A Nation Reborn"	[30]
2014	Nurse Jackie	Lady Pharmacist	Episode: "Nancy Wood"	[30]
2015	Veep	Wallace	2 episodes	[30]
2015	The Slap	ADA Bridget Saltire	Miniseries, 4 episodes	[30]
2016	The Family	Reporter	2 episodes	[30]
2016	I Love You ... But I Lied	Nicole	Episode: "Paranoid"	[30]
2017	Billions	Graff	6 episodes	[30]
2018	Homeland	Janet Bayne	5 episodes	[30]
2018	The Sinner	Bess McTeer	Main role, Season 2	[30]
2018	Shades of Blue	Internal Affairs Detective Jane	Episode: "Goodnight, Sweet Prince"	[30]
2018	Chicago Fire	Amy Whittaker	Episode: "Thirty Percent Slight of Hand"	[30]
2019	The Good Fight	Fiona Novak	Episode: "The One Where a Nazi Gets Punched"	[30]
2019-2021	Bull	ADA Glover	3 episodes	[30]
2020	NCIS: New Orleans	Karla Monroe	Episode: "Waiting for Monroe"	[30]
2022	Archive 81	Emma Trillay	Episode: "The Ferryman"	[30]
2022	FBI	Olivia Blake	Episode: "Face Off"	[30]
2024	Law & Order	Dr. Angela Jeffers	Episode: "On the Ledge"	[30]
2024	Found	Jocelyn Mosley	Episode: "Missing While Gabi Mosley"	[30]
2024-2025	Chicago Med	Mary Katherine Trempley	2 episodes	[30]

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2016	Detroit, I Love You	Iris	Maine role, 4 episodes
2018	Roommating	Vivian	Maine role, 5 episodes
2021	Joyland	Karen Lapidus	Maine role, 3 episodes

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2018	Red Dead Redemption 2	Additional voices	Rockstar Games	[31]

Year	Title	Author	Publisher	Ref.
2023	Why We Love Baseball	Joe Posnanski	Penguin Random House	[32]
2024	Dirty Diana	Jen Besser and Shana Feste	Penguin Random House	[33]
2024	The History of Sound	Ben Shattuck	Penguin Random House	[34]
2024	Charlie Hustle	Keith O'Brien	Penguin Random House	[35]

Year	Title	Role	Playwright	Venue	Ref.
2005	Arcadia	Thomasina	Tom Stoppard	The Publick Theatre	[36]
2005	The Comedy of Errors	Luce	William Shakespeare	The Publick Theatre	[37]
2005	Carol Mulroney	Carol Mulroney (u/s)	Stephen Belber	Huntington Theatre Company	[38]
2005	A Doll's House	Nora Helmer	Henrik Ibsen	Devanaughn Theatre	[39]
2006	Five by Tenn	Gladys/Girl	Tennessee Williams	SpeakEasy Stage Company	[40]
2006	All's Well That Ends Well	Diana	William Shakespeare	Actors' Shakespeare Project	[41]
2006	The Beard of Avon	Lady Lettice	Amy Freed	The Publick Theatre	[42]
2006	Rabbit Hole	Izzy (u/s)	David Lindsay-Abaire	Huntington Theatre Company	[43]
2007	Arms and the Man	Raina	George Bernard Shaw	Lyric Stage Boston	[44]
2007	The Diary of Anne Frank	Margot Frank	Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett	New Repertory Theatre	[45]
2007	Macbeth	Lady Macbeth	William Shakespeare	New Repertory Theatre
2008	The Merchant of Venice	Portia	William Shakespeare	American Shakespeare Center	[46]
2008	Henry V	Katherine/Boy	William Shakespeare	American Shakespeare Center	[47]
2008	The Taming of the Shrew	Bianca	William Shakespeare	American Shakespeare Center	[48]
2008	A Christmas Carol	Mrs. Cratchit	Charles Dickens	American Shakespeare Center
2008	Henry IV, Part 1	Lady Percy	William Shakespeare	Shakespeare Theatre Company	[49]
2009	'Tis Pity She's a Whore	Philotis	John Ford	Baltimore Center Stage	[50]
2009	The Playboy of the Western World	Sara Tansey	John Millington Synge	Pearl Theatre Company, Off-Broadway	[51]
2009	The Yellow Leaf	Mary Shelley	Charles Morley	Pioneer Theatre Company	[52]
2010	Major Barbara	Jenny Hill	George Bernard Shaw	Gingold Theatrical Group, Off-Broadway	[53]
2010	The Playboy of the Western World	Margaret Flaherty	John Millington Synge	Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival	[54]
2010	Romeo and Hamlet	Juliet	R. Jonathan Chapman & Kevin Stefan	Gayfest NYC, Off-Broadway	[55]
2010	All's Well that Ends Well	Helena	William Shakespeare	Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey	[56]
2011	What the Public Wants	Emily Vernon	Arnold Bennett	Mint Theater Company, Off-Broadway	[57]
2011	Light Falling	Ismay	Teresa Deevy	Mint Theater Company, Off-Broadway	[58]
2011	Mary's Wedding	Mary	Stephen Massicotte	Kitchen Theatre Company	[59]
2012	Red Light Winter	Christina	Adam Rapp	Kitchen Theatre Company	[60]
2012	Marie Antoinette: The Color of Flesh	Marie Antoinette	Joel Gross	Portland Stage Company	[61]
2012	Victor Frange Presents Gas!	Smokey	Georg Kaiser & Dan O’Neil	Incubator Arts Project, Off-Broadway	[62]
2013	Ryan Landry's "M"	The Woman	Ryan Landry	Huntington Theater Company	[63]
2013	The Two Gentlemen of Verona	Silvia	William Shakespeare	Commonwealth Shakespeare Company	[64]
2013	The Mousetrap	Mollie Ralston	Agatha Christie	The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis	[65]
2014	As You Like It	Rosalind	William Shakespeare	TheaterLab, Off-off-Broadway	[66]
2014	Private Lives	Amanda/Sybil (u/s)	Noël Coward	Shakespeare Theatre Company	[67]
2014	Sleep No More	Special Guest Performer	William Shakespeare	Punchdrunk / The McKittrick Hotel, Off-Broadway	[68]
2014-2015	Cymbeline	Imogen (u/s)	William Shakespeare	Theatre for a New Audience / Barrow Street Theatre, Off-Broadway	[69]
2015	The Importance of Being Earnest	Gwendolyn Fairfax	Oscar Wilde	Queens Theatre, Off-Broadway	[70]
2016	the goodbye room	Bex	Eric Gilde	Shetler Studios, Off-off-Broadway	[71]
2017	Constellations	Marianne	Nick Payne	The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis	[72]
2017	The Suitcase Under the Bed	Sara Meade/Doris	Teresa Deevy	Mint Theater Company, Off-Broadway	[73]
2025	Flawless	Tess	John J. Wooten	Penguin Rep	[74]