Ellen O'Rourke
- Actress
- Casting Department
Ellen O'Rourke was born in Sunnyvale, California. She started acting at the age
of 8 under the direction of Lou Anne (Ethel of I Love Lucy's sister)
and Ross Graham (from ACT) at Los Altos Children's Theater. Her first
line was "Oh Let us eat corn from Corn Tassle's Cooking Basket" in a
play called Indian Captive. Other roles followed including Tiny Tim in
Scrooge, Piglet in Winneh the Pooh, Peppermint Patty in You're A Good
Man Charlie Brown and The Jester in Once Apon A Mattress. The next
directors there were Jeffra and Michael Cook and under them Ellen did
roles such as The Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland, Bet in Oliver,
Glinda the Good Witch in the Wizard of Oz. Ellen did over 30
productions with Los Altos Children's Theater by the time she was 16
and at one point Scott Williams was the director. Ellen did several
plays in college including playing Marta in the Sound of Music and
various Shakespearean roles for a show including one acts from
Shakespeare. Ellen took every theater, art, dance and literature
possible at Foothill College and then at San Jose State University
culminating in a graduation with great distinction in Correllation in
the Arts/Creative Arts. Ellen then did primarily painting for a while
until at the age of 28 she discovered a way to be in films and TV.
Ellen found the office of Casting Director Toni Suttie and was cast in
her first role with her father. This was a movie called Garage Sale
where she played a woman buying a lot of books. Through the offices of
Beau Bonneau Casting Ellen obtained her first role in a large budget
picture called Patch Adams. Other roles have followed until there are
now more than a dozen films that Ellen has worked on and another dozen
TV episodes.