Tracee Ellis Ross Steps Into Her Next Creative Chapter

Photographed by Amar Daved

Tracee Ellis Ross has reached a point in her career where visibility is no longer the goal. Authorship is. With a newly announced multi year partnership between her production company Joy Mill Entertainment and Fox Entertainment Studios, Ross is formalizing what her work has long made clear: she is as invested in shaping stories as she is in performing them.

The deal includes a first look agreement for scripted projects alongside an overall partnership for unscripted content. Under the agreement, Ross will develop a range of scripted series across comedy and drama, with animation also included in the scope, as well as unscripted formats that allow for more experimental and personality driven storytelling. She will serve as an executive producer and creative originator on projects developed through the partnership, placing her at the center of idea generation, tone, and long term vision. While financial terms were not disclosed, the breadth of the deal signals trust and creative latitude rather than a single project commitment.

This expansion feels aligned with how Ross has always moved. Her career choices have favored intention over saturation, opting for roles and ventures that reflect interior life, humor rooted in truth, and cultural specificity. Through Joy Mill Entertainment, she has been building a foundation for stories that explore identity, womanhood, and lived experience without flattening them for mass consumption. The Fox partnership gives that foundation a larger canvas, allowing her to move fluidly between formats while maintaining authorship.

What stands out is not just the volume of work she will be able to create, but the range. Scripted comedy and drama offer space for character driven narratives, while animation opens a new lane for imaginative storytelling. Unscripted projects create room for immediacy and experimentation, expanding how stories centered on real people and real experiences can be told. Together, the deal positions Ross as a creative leader with the ability to shape tone and narrative across multiple genres.

At a moment when questions of creative ownership continue to define the television landscape, Ross’s move reads as deliberate and earned. She enters this chapter not as talent seeking opportunity, but as a producer establishing infrastructure. One that allows stories to be developed with care, complexity, and longevity, on her terms.

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