Tracee Ellis Ross Says What She Learned At Brown University Has Come Full Circle In Her Journey As A Creative And Businesswoman

Tracee Ellis Ross is crediting her alma mater for helping her navigate both her creative and business endeavors.

In the ’90s, Ross attended Brown University to study fashion, The Grio reports. The daughter of the Motown singer and actress Diana Ross and music business manager Robert Ellis Silberstein discovered a pulse for acting after auditioning for Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X,” according to Backstage. Casting director Robi Reed told her that she had “really good instincts,” and he proceeded to ask, “‘Do you want to be an actor?’”

Ross told Backstage, “It was the first time I had an indication that I was doing something OK, that I had some sort of good instinct about something.”

According to the Golden Globes, she changed her major from fashion to theater and graduated in 1994. As her story tells, the rest is history, and she thanks Brown University for laying the framework for her success today. She shared this in a July interview with Self.

“That intelligence that I discovered at Brown University has come sort of full fruition. Now, in my ability to use that intelligence, both my emotional intelligence, my creative ability as an artist, combined with my ability to articulate and be effective in what I want and what I want to do,” she said.

Here’s a breakdown of how Brown University has influenced Ross’ career trajectory.

Acting

It did not take long for Ross to put her acting chops to the test. She landed her first role in 1996 in “Far Harbor,” directed by her college classmate, John Huddles. Her big break would result from her role in “Girlfriends,” executive-produced by Mara Brock Akil. For eight seasons, Ross portrayed Joan Clayton, a successful attorney.

Ross also portrayed Dr. Rainbow Johnson in “Black-ish.” As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Ross first earned $60,000 per episode. After renegotiating her contract, she became one of the highest-paid Black actresses and women, with a pay increase to $200,000 per episode. What’s more, Ross scored big in the role. In 2017, she won a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy and was nominated again in 2022.

Ross’s additional roles throughout her career include films “The High Note,” “Daddy’s Little Girls,” “Life Support,” and “Five,” as well as TV series “Reed Between the Lines,” “Broad City,” and “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”

Fashion

As aforementioned, fashion was Ross’s original study area when she entered Brown University. While she did pivot, her sense of fashion was not left in the dust. Ross has walked on fashion runways, making her debut with her mother for Thierry Mugler in 1991. She has continued to display various looks throughout her career on the runway, red carpets, and magazine spreads.

Etalk mentions Ross wound up taking a more-than-30-year hiatus from the runway fashion industry, and Vogue shared that she returned in February 2025 to walk in a spunky yellow outfit in the fall/winter 2025 Marni show in Milan.

Pattern Beauty

Ross is also strutting confidently into her own as a businesswoman. When “Girlfriend” wrapped, she wrote a pitch for a haircare brand. In 2018, Ross officially became the founder of Pattern Beauty, using her dollars to work with a chemist on various products for Black hair. The company caters to the curly, coily, and tight-textured community and stemmed from her haircare journey, which had its trials and errors.

Ross was also intentional in how she marketed Pattern Beauty to consumers. She wanted to champion Black beauty rather than sell it in a way that would imply their hair needed to be fixed.

“I feel like when I feel good about myself, I actually buy more. Particularly when it comes to the Black customer, that [problem-based approach] in and of itself is a problematic equation. Telling Black customers that their hair is a problem and that you needed this to fix it absolutely did not work for me,” Ross explained during NRF 2025: Retail’s Big Show, per Retail TouchPoints.

Net Worth

Ross reportedly has a net worth of $16 million, per Celebrity Net Worth.