Ballentine was born in
Toronto, Canada to parents Eva and Blake Ballentine. She is a graduate of the
Etobicoke School of the Arts in Toronto. She began her acting career as a
child actor on the
Toronto stage production of
The Railway Children, directed by
Damian Cruden (2011) for
Mirvish Productions. She went on to appear in other stage performances, including the lead role in
Numbers, at the
Toronto Fringe Festival (2013), and as Little Cosette / Young Eponine in the 25th Anniversary production of
Les Misérables (2013), directed by Laurence Connor and James Powell for
Mirvish Productions. Also in 2013, she was invited to the
Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction Gala as one of the performers to read from one of the five prize-nominated titles. Her first TV role came in a
Hallmark Channel movie, ''Baby's First Christmas'' (2012), in which she played Karen, a primary character with
Casper Van Dien in a lead role. She took on her first film role in
Atom Egoyan's feature,
The Captive (2013), an official selection for the 2014
Cannes Film Festival. She went on to share the screen with
Susan Sarandon,
Gil Bellows and
Christopher Heyerdahl, in
The Calling. In her next larger TV movie role for
Lifetime's ''Clara's Deadly Secret'' (2013), she played Kate Rene S. Garcia, Jr. of Workingauthor.com wrote "And let’s not forget Ella Ballentine. I typically have no faith in child actors, but Ella strikes the perfect tone with her burgeoning independence, but emotional and physical dependency." Eoin Friel from ActionElite felt that "Ella Ballentine almost steals the movie as Bird, the girl being pursued by Sade. The poor thing goes through an absolute nightmare and manages to never be the "annoying kid" in the film; she brings genuine heart to proceedings and is essential for Carter's redemption." In an interview on
Collider, Jane stated "[Ella] was pretty wonderful. She was fun, too." Ballentine's next big role cast her as co-lead in writer/director
Bryan Bertino's horror film,
The Monster (2016) with co-stars
Zoe Kazan, and
Scott Speedman. The Monster became an independent success and Ella received
Fangoria magazine's
2017 Fangoria Chainsaw Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. "If horror movie performances were given Oscars, [Kazan] would be a shoo-in. Same with Ballentine. These two are so believable," wrote Staci Layne Wilson in
Dread Central.
Bloody Disgusting, an American horror genre website, called Ballentine "The Most Badass Horror Hero of 2016". According to critics, in the horror movie,
The Monster "the spooky-good Ella Ballentine" came up as "a minor revelation." According to the
Los Angeles Times Justin Chang "Ballentine gives a fine, fierce performance as a child wise beyond her years and unafraid of confrontation", and Matt Donato from We Got This Covered writes "Ballentine rolls with the punches well for an actress her age, and this shouldn’t be understated". In 2016 Ballentine began her role as Anne Shirley in the three-part
TV movie adaptation of the classic Canadian novel,
Anne of Green Gables. ''
L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables (2016) followed by The Good Stars
(2017), then Fire & Dew'' (2017). The other main characters were portrayed by
Martin Sheen as
Matthew Cuthbert and
Sara Botsford as
Marilla Cuthbert. Ballentine's performance again received critical success and landed her a
Canadian Screen Award (2018). "Ballentine is charming as Anne," wrote Francesca Rudkin in the
New Zealand Herald. Louise Keller in Urbancinefile states "[Ballentine] is outstanding. Wide-eyed and innocent, she proffers just the right amount of worldliness as the orphan who asks for just two things as she prays for the first time. That is a lovely scene." "I was absolutely delighted by actress Ella Ballentine’s portrayal of Anne Shirley. She was a worthy Anne." wrote Sarah M. Miduski. In an interview with
Entertainment Weekly, Sheen says "I adore [Ella]...She’s an extraordinary talent...She’s remarkable. And she’s very funny as well. We have great fun on the set and she’s got a great sense of humor. She’s a joy to work with." In 2019 Ballentine plays the lead, Jackie in
Nicole Dorsey's
Black Conflux (2019) with
Ryan McDonald as her co-lead. Stephan Dalton of
The Hollywood Reporter praised Ballentine's "luminous acting". In 2021
Hallmark Movies & Mysteries cast Ballentine as Gemma, as one of the leads in their television movie
Rise and Shine Benedict Stone, based on author Phaedra Patrick's novel of the same name. ==Filmography==