Tracee Ellis Ross is the owner and founder of PATTERN, a haircare line specifically made for the curly, coily & tight-textured hair community. After a lifetime of her own extensive experiential and market research, Ross recognized that there was an entire demographic of customers that were not being served. In 2009, Ross set out to create effective products that met the needs of this vast community and that would change how this community was marketed to. After ten years of facing obstacles, she launched PATTERN in 2019. The brand’s mission is to exceed the unmet needs of the curly, coily and tight-textured community and be an active space for celebrating Black beauty. With PATTERN, Ross has created a groundbreaking ecosystem that allows Black women to feel seen and celebrated.
Success with PATTERN has also served as a launch pad for Ross’s thought leadership in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). She is currently ULTA Beauty’s Diversity and Inclusion Advisor. One of Ross’s larger missions as a CEO is to help the beauty industry, and larger retail industry, understand that calling Black hair-care “niche” doesn’t account for the purchasing power of the Black and Brown consumer, leaving dollars on the table and once again underestimating the power and importance of this vast community.
Ross is also an award-winning actress and producer known for her roles in BLACK-ISH and GIRLFRIENDS. For her role as Rainbow Johnson in BLACK-ISH, as a comedic leading actress, Ross won the Golden Globe Award in 2017 as well as six NAACP Image Awards. Over the span of her career, she has won nine NAACP image awards and has been nominated for five Emmys and two Critics Choice Awards. Ross is executive producer and narrator of THE HAIR TALES, an NAACP Image Award-nominated docuseries about Black women, beauty and identity through the distinctive lens of Black hair. It debuted on the Oprah Winfrey Network’s cable channel and on Hulu in October 2022. Ross produces a ten-episode podcast, I Am America, where we listen to the stories of people who are redefining their own identity, the idea of community, and the possibility of our country. I Am America is currently streaming on all podcast platforms. Ross will star in and executive produce the animated MTV Entertainment Studios film JODIE, a spinoff of MTV’s iconic DARIA franchise. Upcoming, Ross will co-star in the independent film COLD COPY opposite Bel Powley and Jacob Tremblay and in Cord Jefferson’s directorial debut for MGM’s Orion Pictures alongside Sterling K. Brown, Issa Rae, and Jeffrey Wright. Ross is currently in production on the Amazon Studios movie, CANDY CANE LANE, in which she stars alongside Eddie Murphy.
