Early life Born in Houston, her father was a truck driver and her mother was a housewife. Ellis is the youngest of their four daughters, and she earned a Bachelor’s degree at
Prairie View A&M University.
Career In 1988, Ellis performed in a lecture/concert with singer
Kashif which turned out to be an onsight audition for a proposed singing group to be created by Kashif and friends. Ellis later auditioned to sing in an upcoming female group. Initially, producers
Denzil Foster and
Thomas McElroy had already chosen singers
Dawn Robinson,
Maxine Jones, and
Cindy Herron to be in a three-piece girl group, but added Ellis after hearing her sing. After joining Ellis to the lineup, the group became a quartet and originally chose the name "For You", later changed to
En Vogue. Ellis sang lead vocals on the intro of the group's first single "
Hold On", which peaked at number 2 on
Billboard's
Hot 100 chart, and sold over a million copies becoming platinum-certified by the RIAA. Later that year, the group released their debut album
Born to Sing, which went platinum. Ellis also sang lead vocals on the singles "
Lies" and "
Don't Go", both of which charted in top-five positions on ''Billboard's''
Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The album was considered a commercial failure after sales failed to match the standard of En Vogue's success. She also released her own fragrance titled "Southern Exposure". In 1996, En Vogue recorded "
Don't Let Go (Love)" with Ellis singing the last verse of an extended version of the song. On the album's version, Ellis only sings backup on "Don't Let Go (Love)". The song was featured on the soundtrack to the motion picture
Set It Off. Released in fall, it became the group's biggest hit to date going number one worldwide. It also sold over 1.8million copies worldwide and became certified platinum by the
RIAA. However, the judge decided to award full rights of the "En Vogue" name to Herron and Ellis. In July 2014, Ellis signed to Pyramid Records alongside En Vogue members Cindy Herron and
Rhona Bennett. In November 2014, they released
An En Vogue Christmas. In February 2015, Rufftown Entertainment filed a lawsuit against En Vogue, which names Herron and Ellis for breach of contract. Rufftown owner
Rene Moore is seeking $310million from the group.
Voice/range Ellis is a soprano and has a five-octave
vocal range which was displayed in the En Vogue song, "
Don't Go". By her bandmates, Terry was credited as the member with the "
ballad" type of voice. With En Vogue, she often shared leads, or lead the group songs that were funky, and soulful. In group harmonies, Terry usually sings the
alto arrangement, which is above
Maxine Jones, but under
Dawn Robinson, or
Cindy Herron. ==Personal life==