Former NFL Player Devale Ellis Opens Up About New Rom-Com, Plans to Win an Oscar and How His Kids Humble Him (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Devale Ellis, star of the new Netflix rom-com ‘Meet Me Next Christmas,’ is building an empire.Photo:Joshua Dwain

Joshua Dwain

“My schedule’s a little crazy,” admits the Atlanta-based father of four. Alittle? That’s an understatement.

“I don’t go to bed until about 2, 3 in the morning. That’s my most creative time. I can write, I can get on the phone and do things with people on the west coast because they’re still up," he continues.

Ellis doesn’t believe in the old cliché “the early bird gets the worm.” By his telling, the night owl gets theworld.

Devale Ellis and Christina Milian in ‘Meet Me Next Christmas.'.Marni Grossman/Netflix

Marni Grossman/Netflix

With the movie, Ellis says he found his sweet spot. “I love rom-coms. I’m naturally silly. I love being funny, I love love.”

He also has an affinity for the leading men of the genre. “I loveRyan Reynolds. I loveMatt McConaughey.Hitchis one of my favorite movies,” he says, referencing the 2005Will Smithhit. “Watching those men transition from doing rom-coms to doing more in-depth films is what I ultimately want to do as well.”

His dream role? “I want to playLL Cool Jin his biopic,” says Ellis. “I’m a huge LL Cool J fan. I’m from New York. I understand his journey and his grind. I watched him go from ‘Mama Said Knock You Out,’ all the way toDeep Blue Sea. I watched him [go] from a rapper to a thespian, and I think that I could do the role justice. I think that that’s going to be the role that I win an Oscar [for].”

His dad, who worked at a bank and did security for clubs on weekends, ran a mentorship program for young men and showed them a bootleg copy ofBoyz n the Hood, the 1992 John Singleton coming-of-age drama set in Los Angeles.

“I saw how captivated the audience was,” recalls Ellis. “And I said, ‘I want that power to be able to captivate an audience.’ ”

But he pursued sports instead. “There was no path for the arts as a young Black man. It’s just like in the ’90s everyone was, in a way, I would say not hip to the way the world is now,” explains Ellis.

Devale Ellis and Khadeen Ellis at the the 2024 BET Awards.Michael Buckner/Getty

Michael Buckner/Getty

“Just to be quite frank, homophobia ran rampant in the ’90s, especially in urban areas. So being a part of the arts wasn’t looked at as something a young Black man was supposed to be a part of,” he continues.

“I wanted to get out of Brooklyn, so I said sports could be my way to get out of Brooklyn. I said, ‘If I can get a scholarship to go to school, I might get my degree, I can get a brownstone in Brooklyn. I don’t have to be a starving artist, and then I can go back home and work on my craft.’ That was the plan, and that’s what I was able to do,” says Ellis.

He played football and studied communications and performance at Hofstra University, where he met his now-wife (and podcast co-host) Khadeen, whom Ellis affectionately calls “my person.”

After college, Ellis was briefly signed to the Cleveland Browns, then the Detroit Lions, but he was cut in the summer of 2009. While many athletes would be devastated, Ellis saw it as an opportunity to pursue his original dream: a career in entertainment.

Devale Ellis playing for the Detroit Lions in 2006.Tom Berg/NFLPhotoLibrary

Tom Berg/NFLPhotoLibrary

Ellis — who’d lost all his savings in the stock market crash of 2008 and his $500,000-a-year NFL salary — and Khadeen moved back in with his family in Brooklyn while they regrouped. Khadeen had worked as a makeup artist previously, and supported them while Ellis studied at the Esper Studio, a New York acting conservatory.

“I’m a student of the game more than anything else,” he says.

But Ellis wasn’t getting the types of parts he really wanted. “I only got offered the same role all the time: it was a gangbanger, it was the drug dealer, it was the guy in the lineup,” says Ellis. “I said, ‘In order for them to see me differently, they have to see me differently.’”

To that end, he and Khadeen — who share sons Jackson, 13, Kairo, 8, Kaz, 7, and Dakota, 3 — began filming YouTube segments, showing behind-the-scenes glimpses of their life as parents.

Devale Ellis and his son Jackson on March 28.Paras Griffin/Getty

Paras Griffin/Getty

The videos — like clips of Ellis and Khadeen visiting Hofstra, where they met, or talking about one of their sons peeing on the toilet seat — became wildly popular, garnering hundreds of thousands of views and earning them recognition from all around the world.

“I have fans from the Netherlands, from Nigeria, from Asia,” says Ellis. “They send me messages like, ‘I’ve never seen an American dad like this, be so involved, but be funny and be sexy with his wife.’ I’m just a regular person like everyone else.”

Maybe noteveryoneelse. He and Khadeen have since launched a podcast,Dead Ass with K&E(Joe Bidenwas a guest in 2020 when he was running for president) and wrote aNew York Timesbestseller,We Over Me, which gives an intimate look at their relationship.

Over the years, the Ellises have faced financial struggles, his reliance on pain pills following a knee injury during his time in the NFL, and her life-threatening battle with postpartum preeclampsia.

But, says Ellis, “There’s nothing that we can’t discuss and get through. It’s just that simple. If you want to be somewhere and you want to be with someone who wants to be with you, there’s nothing you can’t get through.”

Devale Ellis in Season 2 of ‘Sistas.'.Charles Bergmann/Everett Collection

Charles Bergmann/Everett Collection

Together, they are building what Ellis calls an “empire,” while learning from billionaireTyler Perry, who cast the actor as the complicated Zac Taylor in his juicy BET seriesSistasin 2019. Three years later, Ellis got a spinoff,Zatima, on BET+.

“Working with Tyler has been a master class,” says Ellis. But no matter how much success he has, his boys always keep him humble.

Ellis will likely get more cool points with the kids next year whenOthello— the Shakespeare play he’s co-producing — opens on Broadway withDenzel WashingtonandJake Gyllenhaalin the lead roles. “I’m excited,” says Ellis, who has yet to meet the stars. “I’m going to compose myself when I do.”

He’s eager to see what the future holds, no matter how it looks.

“There’s no book on life. We’re all trying to figure it out. I’m trying to figure it out the right way while balancing being a father and a husband and a businessman,” says Ellis. “It’s scary, but it is invigorating.”

Meet Me Next Christmasis on Netflix Nov. 6.

source: people.com