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Jay Ellis

Source: HelloBeautiful / InteractiveOne

There’s a undercover brotherhood among Black men in Hollywood. Denzel Washington recently passed the proverbial baton to Black Panther star Michael B. Jordan, but long before that, he made headlines for saving Omari Hardwick from homelessness. As the top thespian in the game, Denzel planted a seed in many actors we’ve grown to love and Omari, is paying it forward. Denzel mentors Omari and Omari mentors Jay Ellis.

Ellis’ breakout role on Insecure made him a sought-after TV star and sex symbol (depending who you ask). But the 6′ 2″ celebrity ambassador for the 2018 American Black Film Festival says he wouldn’t hand landed the role had Omari not encouraged him to do a pilot he wasn’t sure about.

“He’s one of the first people I call if I’m not sure about something,” he revealed while playing Games N’ Gab. ” I remember booking this pilot. I called him and was like ‘Yo, I don’t know if this is what I want to do for the next seven years, if this goes. He had this conversation with me. If I had not had that conversation with him, I probably would not have gotten the opportunity to do insecure.”

Speaking of Insecure, Ellis isn’t sure we’ll be seeing him on season three. Hit the play button on this episode of Games N’ Gab to get the details.

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For 2024’s iteration of MadameNoire and HelloBeautiful’s annual series Women to Know, we knew we wanted to celebrate the people who help make the joys of film and television possible. To create art is to create magic. This year, we spotlight Hollywood Executive’s changing the face of cinema.