Ellen Thomas (actress)

Ellen Thomas (born 3 February 1964)^[1] is a Sierra Leonean-British actress, known for her roles as Liz Webbe in the Channel 4 sitcom Teachers and Claudette Hubbard in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. She is also known for her recent voice role in the Netflix animated show Arcane as Noxian warlord, Ambessa Medarda.

Ellen Thomas
Thomas in 2016
Born	(1964-02-03) 3 February 1964 (age 61) Sierra Leone
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1980–present
Known for	Teachers EastEnders Mount Pleasant

Career

In Teachers, Thomas played Liz Webbe, a school secretary, and appeared in all four series, from 2001 to 2004. She was a regular cast member in BBC Radio 4's Clare in the Community and in BBC Three's Coming of Age, in which she portrayed the principal. For her role in Rev, she was nominated for "Best TV Comedy Performance" at the Black International Film Festival and Music Video & Screen Awards.^[2] In 2010, she had a minor role in Come Fly with Me, as Mrs Mbutu.^[3]

Thomas is known for the number of characters she has portrayed in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. She initially played Pearl Chadwick in 1990, Estella Hulton in 2002, Grace Olubunmi from 2010 to 2011, and most notably Claudette Hubbard from 2015 to 2016.^[4][5][6] From 2018 to 2019, Thomas appeared in the medical drama by the BBC Casualty, in the recurring role of Omo Masters.^[7] In 2020, she appeared in an episode of Death in Paradise.^[8] In 2021 she appeared in the first season of Netflix's Arcane,^[9] voicing Ambessa Medarda and reprised the role for season 2 in 2024. In 2023, she appeared in The Madame Blanc Mysteries.^[10] In 2024, she appeared in two episodes of the BBC crime drama Silent Witness.^[11]

On stage Thomas made her debut in July 1981, London playing Madam Irma in the ground breaking multi-racial performance of jean Genet's revolutionary The Balcony presented by Internationalist Theatre ^[12]

Filmography

Television roles

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1980	The Gentle Touch	Laura	Series 5, Episode 4
1981	Sunday Night Thriller	Assistant	1 episode
1982	O.T.T.	Herself, various	12 episodes
1983	Don't Wait Up	Receptionist	Series 1, Episode 5
1984	Shroud for a Nightingale	Staff Nurse	3 episodes
1987	The Lenny Henry Show	Rose	Series 1, Episode 1–6
1988	French and Saunders	Various characters	Christmas special
	The Lenny Henry Show	Rose	Series 2, Episode 1–6
1989	CBS Summer Playhouse	Mrs. Holmes	Series 3, Episode 10 "Outpost"
1990	Hallelujah Anyhow	Unnamed Character
	EastEnders	Pearl Chadwick	3 episodes
1991	Grange Hill	Pregnancy Advisor	Series 14, Episode 14
1993	Screenplay	Aunt Mafe	1 episode
1994–1996	Cardiac Arrest	Sister Jackie Landers	14 episodes
1994	The Bill	Iris Davareux	"Lesson to Be Learned"
	Home Away from Home	Miriam
1995	London Bridge	Diane Symmons	Series 2, Episode 1–2
1996	The Ruth Rendell Mysteries	Laurette Akande	3 episodes
1997	Holding On	Florrie	Series 1 Episode 1–8
	Kavanagh QC	Chief Usher	Series 3, Episode 1 "Mute of Malice"
1998	Ultraviolet	Maria	Series 1, Episode 5 "Terra Incognita"
2000	The Bill	Mrs. Okin	"White Lies"
	In Defence	Mrs. Hope	Series 1, Episode 1
	Where There's Smoke	Counsellor Edwards
	Never Never	Brenda	Short drama
2001–2004	Teachers	Liz Webb	Series 1–4 (39 episodes)
2002	Doctors	Mrs. Foster	1 episode
	The Bill	Aisha Danvers
	Holby City	Marcia Lyme	1 episode
	The Jury	Ruby Thomas	Series 1, Episode 1–4
	EastEnders	Estella Hulton	1 episode
2003	Strange	Mrs. Andoh	Series 1, Episode 2 "Kaa-Jinn"
	Lenny Henry in Pieces	Unnamed Character	Series 2, Episode 2
	Good Food Live	Herself	1 episode
2005	Casualty	Stephanie Mellor	Episode: "Aftermath"
	William and Mary	Mrs. Morris	Series 3, Episode 2
2006	Doctor Who	Clockwork Woman	Series 2, Episode 4 "The Girl in the Fireplace"
	Little Miss Jocelyn	Unnamed Character	Series 1, Episode 1 and 3
	Trial & Retribution	Judge Joyce Addo	"Sins Of The Father"
	Doctors	Marie Crossley	Series 7, Episode 140 "Ashes to Ashes"
	The Play's the Thing	Herself	Series 1, Episode 2
2007	Outnumbered	Jehovah's Witness	Series 1, Episode 4
	One of Us?	Mum	Short film
2008	Coming of Age	The Principal	All episodes since series 1, episode 3
	New Tricks	Cora Trimble	Series 5, Episode 8 "Mad Dogs"
2009	Off the Hook	Angela	Series 1, Episode 1
	Doctor Who	Carmen	Easter 2009 special; "Planet of the Dead"
	Moses Jones	Libby Jones	Series 1, Episodes 2 and 3
2010–2011	EastEnders	Grace Olubunmi	Recurring role
2010-2014	Rev.	Adoha Onyeka	All episodes
2011	Come Fly with Me	Mrs. Mbutu	Episode 2
	EastEnders: E20	Grace Olubunmi
2012	Doctors	Mrs Francelle Ndebele	"Paradise Lost"
	Casualty	Florence Asike	2 episodes
2015–2016	EastEnders	Claudette Hubbard	Regular role
2015	Humans	Lindsey Kiwanuka	Episode 1–2
2015–2017	Mount Pleasant	Nana Miller	Regular role
2016	New Blood	Joan Philips	Episode 1
2018–2019	Casualty	Omo Masters	Recurring role
2018–2019	In the Long Run	Mama	5 episodes (voice role), 2 episodes
2018	Midsomer Murders	Ruth Crane	1 episode
	The Queen and I	Philomena Troussaint	Television film
2019	Doctors	Liz Maberry	1 episode
	Dark Money	Maggie Mensah	Main role
2020	Death in Paradise	Georgine Perault	Series 9, Episode 7
2021–2024	Arcane	Ambessa Medarda	Voice, 9 episodes
2022	A Birthday Party	Aunty Fatou	Short film
	Say Nothing	Ms Araali Mabele	Short film
	Murder, They Hope	Nanny	Episode: "A Midsummer Night's Scream"
	A Birthday Party	Aunty Fatou	Short film
2023	Such A Lovely Day	Claude	Short film
2024	The Madame Blanc Mysteries	Reme Benson	Episode: "Kidnap"
	Silent Witness	Esther Daniels	2 episodes
	The Cleaner	Jennifer	Episode: "The Committee"[13]
TBA	Finding Forever
Sources: [14][15]

Film roles

Year	Title	Role
2001	South West 9	Mrs. Ashware
	Buried Treasure	Martha
2002	Jeffrey Archer: The Truth	First Judge
2006	Basic Instinct 2	Prosecutor
	Losing It	Paula
	Breaking and Entering	Judge
2008	Clubbed	Mrs. Smith
2010	The Future Wags of Great Britain	Auntie Deborah
	The Santa Trap	Tooth Fairy
2011	Johnny English Reborn	Colin Tucker's mother
2016	Golden Years	Thelma
2022	Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris	Vi Butterfield
	The Pay Day	Ms Boomer
Sources: [16][17]

Audiobooks

• 2025: C. L. Clark: Ambessa: Chosen of the Wolf. A League of Legends: Arcane Novel, Little, Brown Audio

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Result	Ref.
2016	The British Soap Awards	Villain of the Year	Nominated	[18]
2016	Inside Soap Awards	Best Bad Girl	Longlisted	[19]