Ellen Thomas

Ellen Thomas (born 3 February 1954) is a Sierra Leonean-British actress, known for her roles as Liz Webbe in the Channel 4 sitcom Teachers and Claudette Hubbard in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. She is also known for her recent voice role in the Netflix animated show Arcane as Noxian warlord, Ambessa Medarda.

Career In Teachers, Thomas played Liz Webbe, a school secretary, and appeared in all four series, from 2001 to 2004. She was a regular cast member in BBC Radio 4's Clare in the Community and in BBC Three's Coming of Age, in which she portrayed the principal. For her role in Rev, she was nominated for "Best TV Comedy Performance" at the Black International Film Festival and Music Video & Screen Awards. In 2010, she had a minor role in Come Fly with Me, as Mrs Mbutu.

Thomas is known for the number of characters she has portrayed in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. She initially played Pearl Chadwick in 1990, Estella Hulton in 2002, Grace Olubunmi from 2010 to 2011, and most notably Claudette Hubbard from 2015 to 2016. From 2018 to 2019, Thomas appeared in the medical drama by the BBC Casualty, in the recurring role of Omo Masters. In 2020, she appeared in an episode of Death in Paradise. In 2021 she appeared in the first season of Netflix's Arcane, voicing Ambessa Medarda and reprised the role for season 2 in 2024. In 2023, she appeared in The Madame Blanc Mysteries. In 2024, she appeared in two episodes of the BBC crime drama Silent Witness.

On stage, Thomas made her debut in July 1981, in London, playing Madam Irma in the ground breaking multi-racial performance of Jean Genet's revolutionary The Balcony, presented by Internationalist Theatre She also played the role of Enid Matthews in Leave Taking at its debut at the Liverpool Playhouse in 1987 and in a run at the Lyric, Hammersmith in 1990.

Filmography

Audiobooks 2025: C. L. Clark: Ambessa: Chosen of the Wolf. A League of Legends: Arcane Novel, Little, Brown Audio

Awards and nominations Year Award Category Result 2016 The British Soap Awards Villain of the Year 2016 Inside Soap Awards Best Bad Girl