DESA | ABOUT | NOTABLE ALUMNI
NOTABLE ALUMNI
Keeping the Spirit of DESA Alive
Alumni and current students are the heartbeat of Ellington. We are proud that many continue to impact the community long after graduating. We are also fortunate that many alumni choose to share their talents as teacher-artists for the next generation of Ellington students. Please take a look at our most notable alumni along with those who are currently serving as teacher-artists, board members, or support staff at Ellington!
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Writer on African-American style, race, gender and hip-hop culture (Hair Tales: The Parlor (2016), Behind the Curtain: Eclipsed (2016) and The Hair Tales (2022)
Instrumental Music
Founder of Washington Women in Jazz Festival, pianist, vocalist and composer
Marjuan Canady '03
Theatre
Broadway Producer and award-winning Caribbean-American artist, entrepreneur, educator, and literacy advocate
Gregory Charles Royla
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Musician, trombonist, composer, writer, co-founder of The BeBop Channel, founder of the New York Jazz Film Festival, judge on America's Hot Musician. Artistic Director of the American Youth Symphony (AYS) in D.C.
Theatre
Actress (The Cosby Show), playwright, producing artist, educator, activist, and author (What a Piece of Work is Man! Full-Length Plays for Leading Women)
Yasha Jackson '03
Theatre
Actress (The Flight Attendant (2020), Black Mirror (2011) and Manifest (2018)
Adam Serwer '01
Theatre
NYT best-Selling author (The Cruelty is the Point), CNN Commentator, staff writer for The Atlantic
Wallace Roney '78
Instrumental Music
Three time Grammy-award winning trumpeter and composer
Tony Terry
Vocal Music
Singer
Rosalind “Roz” White '88
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Vocal musician, actor, motivational speaker, and educator
Quique Aviles '85
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DC poet, performer, and community activist
Elana Casey '02
Visual Arts
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Marc Cary
Instrumental Music
Post-bop jazz pianist
Matthew Dickens '79
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Actor, singer, dancer and writer, producer, director
Donnell Floyd '85
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Founding member of Go-Go band Rare Essence
Tanya Hamilton '86
Visual Arts
Film director and producer (Night Catches Us (2010), The Chi (2018) and Queen Sugar (2016)
Theatre
Producer, known for Peace of Mind with Taraji (2020), Entertainment Tonight (1981), The Real (2013), Executive Director at The Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation, Former Director of Arts at Duke Ellington School of the Arts
Instrumental Music
Grammy-award winner singer-songwriter, rapper, and bassist
Serena Reeder '01
Theatre
Actor, writer, and director
Sylver Logan Sharpe
Vocal Music
Soul, jazz, gospel & blues singer
Museum Studies
Conceptual artist working primarily with themes related to perspective, identity, commodity, media and popular culture
Dave Chappelle '91
Theatre
Emmy and Grammy-winning comedian and actor
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Fulbright scholar, ethnomusicologist, Africanist/African Americanist scholar, cultural activist, and Black music practitioner
Nekisha Durrett '96
Visual Arts
A mixed-media artist who employs the visual language of mass media to bring forward histories that objects, places, and words embody, but are not often celebrated.
Johnny Gill '85
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R&B singer-songwriter and actor
Theatre
Emmy and Tony-nominated actor (24, Walking Dead, In The Heights, Straight Outta Compton
Sandra Jackson-DuMont
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Director and CEO of Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, former Director of Education at MOMA
Theatre
Actress (The Batman (2022), The Woman King (2022) and How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2022)
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NAACP-award winning actor and comedian (Ray, Selma Lord Selma, Dead Presidents, and Menace 2 Society, and the TV series The Family Business, Sacrifice, and Saints & Sinners)
Samira Wiley '05
Theatre
Emmy, SAG and GLADD-winning actress (Orange is the New Black and Handmaid’s Tale)
ALUMNI CURRENTLY ON
STAFF & BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Visual Arts
Actress (Morning Glory (2010), Everybody's Fine (2009) and Heights (2005), Theatre Teacher
Robin Y. Harris '89
Theatre
Chair of Technical Design & Production Department, Staff Representative to DESAP Board
Fran Scott '78
Visual Arts
Instrument Music Teacher
Gregory Watkins '04
Theatre
Singer, musician, musical director, Director of SEL & Student Services
Robert Blount '79
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Pianist, Vocal Music Teacher
Gabrielle Dubose '79
Dance
English Teacher
Kieron C. Irvine
Visual Arts
Instrument Music Teacher
Monique D. Spells '99
Vocal Music
Singer, Chair of Vocal Music
Kaia Calhoun
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Theatre Teacher
Mike Easton '81
Visual Arts
Chair of Visual Arts Department
Brenda Morris, Esq. '79
Theatre
Senior Executive, Ellington Fund Vice President
Nikki Sutton '92
Dance
Physical Education, Dance Potpourri, Dance Composition, Modern Dance II