Over the prolific span of a 27-year career, Tracee Ellis Ross has made profound leaps and bounds in her career, and now she’s finally reaping the fruits of her labor.
The award-winning actress, producer and founder will be properly revered with a Doctorate from Spelman College. She is slated to receive her immense accolade at the school’s 2023 Commencement Ceremony on Sunday, May 21, 2023.
The honor follows an impressive string of accomplishments throughout her career. Some of her most significant standout moments include countless years of success as the co-lead of ABC’s critically acclaimed, award-winning series Black-Ish and UPN’s Girlfriends. In 2017, Ross won the Golden Globe Award and nine NAACP Image Awards for her role as Rainbow on Black-Ish. She is also the founder of PATTERN, a haircare brand that caters to textured hair.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 27: Tracee Ellis Ross attends as Tiffany & Co. Celebrates the reopening of NYC Flagship store, The Landmark on April 27, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Tiffany & Co.)
“One of the things that’s been really important to me from the beginning, about PATTERN, is that we really are meeting our hair where it is,” Ross told Essence Magazine in 2020. “We aren’t telling it where to go.”
Her products are now distributed nationwide and can be found in ULTA and beauty supply stores across the U.S.
In support of her intense love for beauty enterprises, she’s also a proud proponent of bolstering diverse representation in media. She is the executive producer and narrator of Hair Tales, a docuseries about Black women’s identity through the lens of their relationship with hair. It featured commentary from Chloe Bailey and Issa Rae, among other notable figures and debuted on The Oprah Winfrey Network and Hulu in October 2022. In addition, she produced I Am America, a limited podcast that focuses on “expanding our understanding of identity, the idea of community and the possibility of our country.”