How Jay Ellis Finds Confidence Through Jewelry
The actor shares his meaningful personal jewelry collection with Only Natural Diamonds and how his grandfather influenced his current style.
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Jay Ellis looks like he could be cut from marble. A face card that never declines and a physique made to look good in just about anything, you might assume his steely exterior matches his personality. In reality though, Jay Ellis might be the nicest guy you’ll ever meet. Personable and friendly, he’s one of those people who makes you feel like you’ve known him forever, after only a few minutes of conversation. Surely, that charisma has contributed to his impressive career, from unforgettable characters in series like Insecure and Running Point, to standout roles in box office hits like Top Gun: Maverick. Ellis has serious sparkle, on and off camera.
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- Jane Asher is a social media manager with a passion for pop culture.
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“As a kid, I just dreamed of being able to tell stories and play these characters, and anything else that happens outside of that is icing on the cake,” Jay Ellis shares with Only Natural Diamonds. “But when people actually identify, or they care, or they feel like they know that character, it’s really, really cool.”
Jay Ellis’s career has taken him from sets in downtown New York City to glamorous red carpets in Los Angeles, and like any good Hollywood heartthrob, diamonds have followed. Most recently, he was cast in Mindy Kaling’s new series Not Suitable For Work as an investment banker. “I feel like this guy has bought a tennis bracelet for a lady or two before, as a gesture,” he says with a sly smile. “I feel like his watch would probably have diamonds around the crown.”
Diamonds have followed him in real life, too, most notably when he wore the Lapsana Cartier brooch to the Critics’ Choice Awards in 2023. “I also wore a Cartier Tank watch, so it was a very Cartier moment,” he recalls. “But it was beautiful. I remember loving it, and I remember everyone was like ‘Oh my god, what is that? Where did you get that? What is that?” The floral-inspired brooch is named after a type of dandelion, with a design that mimics the flower’s feathers blowing in the wind. The 3.15-carat piece features half-moon, square, tapered, and brilliant-cut diamonds.
Seeing my grandfather confidently rock this ring and chain, that made me be like, ‘This is cool, I love this, I could wear that.’
Ellis wore another exceptional piece from Cartier during this photoshoot: A rare alligator collar from Cartier’s Fauna and Flora collection, featuring a stunning 5.01-carat pear-shaped diamond drop dangling from the alligator’s mouth.
Jewelry that Feels Personal
Ellis is comfortable around jewelry, having grown up with a grandfather who loved his bling. “Grandpa James always wore a gold ring with a diamond in it,” he shares. “I remember just staring at that ring all the time, thinking ‘I want that.’” Grandpa James paired his ring with a gold chain, and today Jay Ellis finds that the older he gets, the more his style reflects his grandfather’s.
“Obviously, my mom and grandmothers had jewelry, but seeing my grandfather confidently rock this ring and chain, that made me be like, ‘This is cool, I love this, I could wear that,’” He muses. “I think a lot of the pieces I own now are because of him.”
In fact, Ellis has his own gold chain necklace that he never takes off—a custom Zameer Kassam piece commissioned by his wife of three years, Nina Senicar, for his 40th birthday to symbolize meaningful moments in his life. “The shape of the links is the same shape as the windows in the place where my wife and I met,” he explains, pointing to the design.
The length of the chain also mirrors the floor of the building they were on. “On each side of the clasp there’s a P and a W, for Paula and Wendell, my parents.” Next to the clasp, just before the chain links begin, is a small, engraved plate. “On one side, it says amore mio, ‘my love,’” he shares. On the other side are gemstones: a ruby, a garnet, a turquoise, two topaz, and one opal. “Each of those stones represents my family’s birthstones.”
“I never go anywhere without this, ever,” he says. “It’s always on my body, even when I’m at work. I always have it on.” Like a piece of armor or a good-luck talisman, the jewelry we treasure most carries meaning beyond the value of the gold or diamonds. It becomes precious because of what it represents.
Jay Ellis Proposed with a Natural Diamond
Another special piece for Jay Ellis is, of course, his wife’s diamond engagement ring. When it came time to propose, the one thing he was certain of was the diamond: a round brilliant cut set on a traditional gold band. “I designed her ring,” he says proudly. “I had an idea of what she wanted, but we never really talked about it.”
The proposal itself was another story. “While I was filming Top Gun: Maverick, I knew that I was going to propose. I had gotten the ring, and we had the holiday break off, plus another two or three weeks in January, so we went on a trip with some friends to Bali,” he explains. “I just didn’t know how I was going to propose.”
“I’m pitching all these ideas to my cast mates on Top Gun: Maverick,” he recalls with a laugh. “One idea was to go scuba diving, to tie the ring to my suit and propose underwater. But Monica Barbaro was like, ‘That’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard.’” Not to mention, a bit risky! “Danny Ramirez was like, ‘You know, barracudas like really shiny things and they’ll attack if they see something shiny.’ To this day, I actually don’t know if he was messing with me or not.”
It was Miles Teller’s suggestion that became the locale winner. “Miles told me about this beach in Uluwatu. He said, ‘It’s the most beautiful beach I’ve ever seen in my life.’” That ended up as the proposal spot, but not before Ellis brought the ring with him to every activity on the vacation, including the scuba diving excursion.
“I was very nervous, but I was also stupid,” he remembers, rolling his eyes. “I ended up going scuba diving with the ring in my backpack. I just didn’t even think about it.” A bout of Bali belly delayed the proposal plans as well, but as fate would have it, a trip to Teller’s recommended beach was the final stop on their itinerary. Watching the sunset together on that famous beach, Jay Ellis got down on one knee and proposed with a natural diamond ring.
How Jay Ellis Finds Inspiration in His Roles
At home, Ellis is husband and now dad following the birth of his two children. To the world, he’s Insecure’s Martin Lawrence, Top Gun Maverick’s Lt. Reuben “Payback” Fitch, and, most recently, Running Point’s Jay Brown, coach of the fictional L.A. Waves basketball team. This role hit close to home. “I got a chance to play college basketball and thought I was going to play pro in Europe,” he says. “That didn’t work out, but basketball has always been a part of my life.”
“When Ike Barinholtz, Mindy Kaling, and Dave Stassen [creators of Running Point] called me for this role, about playing this coach, I was like, oh, I know this guy. I know exactly who this guy is.” Ellis looked to a few basketball role models when it came to building his character, including Brad Barbarick, his coach from Concordia University; LA Clippers coach Ty Lue; LA Lakers coach JJ Redick; and Dallas Mavericks coach Jason Kidd, just to name a few.
“You see the swagger that they had as players carry into their coaching and how they think about the game,” he muses. “JJ is actually one of my favorites to think about because he’s one of the most competitive people on the planet, so there’s nothing else for him to do but coach,” he says. “It’s great to watch him sink into that and find his stride.”
While his past life as a basketball player helped him prepare for Running Point, his time as a model helped him transition into acting in a different way. “As a model, you spend a lot of time in very little clothes,” he says with a laugh. “I think it helps in some ways because it takes away inhibitions. It takes away fear or vulnerability. And on set, you have to drop the walls and just go do the thing, and you get metaphorically naked in front of two hundred people every day.”
It takes away fear or vulnerability. And on set, you have to drop the walls and just go do the thing, and you get metaphorically naked in front of two hundred people every day.
What’s Next for Jay Ellis
Jay Ellis has plenty of exciting projects on the horizon, including a limited thriller series called All Her Fault debuting this month. “Sarah Snook is the lead, along with Jake Lacey, Dakota Fanning, Michael Peña, and Abby Elliott. Such a great, creative group,” he shares. “I may or may not be a bad guy, that’s all I’m going to say!”
Not Suitable For Work is still in production, but with leads like Avantika, Ella Hunt, Will Angus, Jack Martin, and Nicholas Duvernay, fans are eager to see what’s in store. “It’s a phenomenal cast. A bunch of really fun actors who are all super talented and interesting and making such great choices,” gushes Ellis. “The writing is sharp and funny, and I think it’s going to take us all back to that same stage and time in our lives when we were just trying to make it by any means necessary. And I think that’s always fun to watch.” Ellis plays an investment banker in the show– “a guy that you’ve never seen me play before,” he teases.
Until then, catch Ellis in All Her Fault, available to stream on Peacock on November 6.
Photographer: Daniel Jack Lyons
Stylist: Sean Knight
Creative Director: Lizzy Oppenheimer
Barber: Eric Gonzalez
Makeup Artist: Kym Oubre
Entertainment Director At-Large: Glynis Costin
Production Designer: Sarah Fernandez
Creative Production: Petty Cash Production
1st Photo Assistant: Kevin Faulkner
2nd Photo Assistant: Bryant Woolcock
Digital Tech: Brett Panelli
Styling Assistant: Drew Hemnes
