Her first big success came in the BBC radio show Educating Archie as naughty schoolgirl Monica and later as the Brummie, "Marlene".
Brummie, inhabitants of Birmingham or the Birmingham dialect
Ellis also appeared as a Brummie beauty contest participant in the 1977 film, Confessions from a Holiday Camp in which she performed her first full frontal nudity scene.
From 24 April 2006 until 11 May 2007, Howe-Douglas played Brummie receptionist Donna Parmar in the BBC daytime soap opera Doctors.
Brummie |
The second series introduced new characters including Blaxploitation Pope, who is Lucius T. Kool III, a ghetto brother and leader of the Catholic Church; President Umbukele, who is an expert in diplomacy and acquiring foreign aid, but then spends it all on silly things; bad influence Granddad; and a family of animated polar bears with Brummie accents, who live at Dudley zoo.