Ellis Howard - Actor of the Month for July 2026

1. Has there been a Casting Director who has really championed or supported you in your career journey?

Claudia Blunt! I met Claudia at an audition right at the beginning of my career and she completely demystified the industry for me. Since then, she's championed me in every sense: encouraging me to create my own work, reading drafts of scripts, helping me navigate agents/US representation, and offering the kind of advice you can't Google. She's one of those rare people who invests in artists before everyone else catches up. She's also, importantly, a very, very good hang.

2. What is the project you’re most proud of, and why?

What It Feels Like For A Girl. I'm proud that we made something genuinely fearless. From day one, the set was inclusive, ambitious and full of heart, which meant everyone felt able to take huge, mad creative risks. I think/hope audiences can feel that. The show is loud, anarchic, queer and unapologetically working-class, but it's also deeply hopeful. I'm proud of the work we made, the relationships that came from it, and the conversations it started. Those are the kinds of stories I want to keep telling. Long live WIFLFAG! 

3. What or who inspired you to pursue acting as a career?

Stephen Graham and Glenda Jackson. Two Scouse heroes. Hearing Stephen on TV when I was growing up blew up the parameters of my imagination and let me dream bolder about the kind of stories I could tell. Watching Glenda on screen, in the theatre, and in the Houses of Parliament(!) made me realise that art can be political, that we can tell stories that challenge perceptions, question the narrative of the day, and build much needed empathy. I feel both Glenda and Stephen built/are building singular careers, never asking for permission, and daring to take up space in many different arenas, and, as someone who is acting-writing-and-hopefully producing, I feel so inspired by that.

4. What was your first IMDbPro credit and how did you feel when you saw it? 

My first credit was HBO’s Catherine the Great. I felt incredibly chic and sophisticated knowing that Helen Mirren’s face would be on my IMDb in perpetuity. 

5. How has IMDbPro helped you either to market yourself or connect with other industry professionals?

I use IMDbPro constantly. It's where I go to see who's making the work I admire, who's collaborating with who, and where projects are emerging. It makes the industry feel much less like a maze and much more like a creative community.

6. Any funny or memorable casting room stories you can share?

I was fresh out of drama school and completely bombed what felt like the biggest audition of my life because, unbeknownst to me, my ex was sitting in the room. I walked out absolutely devastated... then bumped into Patti LuPone(!) in Soho, who smacked me with a Pad Thai and said, "You'll be fine, kid!" It remains the strangest emotional arc of any afternoon I've ever had.

7. If you could play any character in any movie, past or present, who would it be and why?

I've spent a lot of my career so far playing characters with enormous vulnerability, so I'd love to play someone with sharp elbows, a man in a suit who speaks at a million miles an hour. Whether that’s a David Mamet, a Malcolm Tucker or a Marty Supreme losing his head in a Josh Safdie film. I would love to hiss those lines. 

8. What show or movie that you’re currently watching or have watched countless times could you nerd out about forever? What do you love about it?

I always re-watch Girls. I think it is a work of unrivalled genius and is so brilliantly drawn and comic and odd and revolutionary and I could talk about it forever.

9. Tell us a fun fact about you outside of acting.

I run a quasi-food-bank service in Liverpool with my Mum, Nan, and Auntie. We’re like older, meaner, but just as hot, Golden Girls.