Ella Thomas: a Biography

From a real-life supermodel to playing a robot opposite Bruce Willis on the big screen in SURROGATES, there is nothing that this statuesque beauty and star of the NBC miniseries "The Storm," Ella Thomas, can't do.

Thomas was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to an Eritrean mother and a U.S. Air Force officer who was stationed there at the time. She spent the first few years of her life in Ethiopia's capital city before moving to Germany where she spent her childhood years. Languages came easy to Thomas as she became fluent in German and French while enrolled in a German school, in addition to learning English from her mother at home. It was there where she fondly remembers participating in both local and school productions and where she first realized her love for performing.

It wasn't until her family moved to Connecticut at 15 that she got discovered by her high school classmate's mom and her career took off. In a whirlwind of a year, Thomas traveled to New York where she signed with Elite Model Management and spent the summer in Paris where she had photo shoots with Seventeen magazine, YM magazine, Benetton and was also featured in a fashion spread for Marie Claire magazine all at the age of 16. However, modeling wasn't her only passion. While attending Holy Cross High School, Thomas immersed herself in a variety of athletics in her free time including varsity basketball, track, ballet and baton twirling.

Thomas continued to model with great success for a year following high school graduation but was forced to reassess her career goals when she suffered a serious injury during a photo shoot. Thomas decided to step back and take a break from her rapidly growing career to recuperate and earn her Bachelors in biology. However, she never lost her determination and love for modeling.

After three years, Thomas was itching to get back into the industry and moved to New York to pick up where she left off. She instantly got back into the modeling groove, traveling back and forth between Los Angeles and New York for print and commercial work including numerous ads for Gap, L'Oreal, Macy's and Tiffany & Co. in addition to gracing the covers and pages of magazines including Elle, Glamour and InStyle.

It was during one of her trips to Los Angeles that she booked her first acting role in the Artist View thriller DISTURBANCE. During the same trip, Thomas got her big break when she met "7th Heaven's" creator Brenda Hampton while volunteering at Child Help, a charity for children who have been in the system too long and have not been adopted. Hampton was so amazed not only by Thomas's looks but also by her heart that she cast her on "7th Heaven" as an angel who comes back to earth to thank a family for adopting her young children after she died. Shortly after her appearance, Thomas moved to Los Angeles to pursue her new dreams.

Almost instantly upon her arrival to the "City of Angels," Thomas began booking guest spots on some of the hottest shows on television. She appeared on "Ugly Betty" as a supermodel with the season's hottest "must have item" opposite American Ferrera. Next she landed roles in "Las Vegas" as a New York photographer and Mike's (James Lesure) love interest, "How I Met Your Mother" as a girl trying to seduce Neil Patrick Harris into a cab and "Entourage" as "Viveca" an adulterous woman who tried to steal "Vince" (Adrian Grenier) away from his girlfriend. She booked a role in the Hallmark film PANIC BUTTON as the daughter of Richard Roundtree. Most recently, Thomas starred as Sean "P. Diddy" Combs' fiance in an episode of "CSI Miami."

Next, Thomas stars in the apocalyptic mini-series "The Storm," which is part of the highly anticipated Survival Sundays on NBC, which features three mini-series on what could possibly be the end of the world. In this two-part series, Thomas stars alongside James Van Der Beek and Luke Perry as "Anna Roberts," a newly single New York City bartender that must reunited with her ex-boyfriend to save her best friend who is trapped outside during the storm.

In addition to "The Storm," Thomas will also be hitting the big screen at summer's end as she takes on a role with action-legend Bruce Willis in the sci-fi thriller SURROGATES. The film is set in the near future in which humans live in isolation while only communicating with their fellow man through robots that serve as social surrogates of their human counterparts. Thomas stars as "Lisa," a surrogate who lusts after Willis' character, an FBI agent who enlists the aid of his own surrogate to investigate the murder of inventor of the surrogates. The film also costars Radha Mitchell and Ving Rhames.

When she is not working or on set, Thomas enjoys staying active by dancing and playing basketball and tennis. She also enjoys reading sci-fi, classics and American history every chance she gets.