ELLEN ALBERTINI DOW was born in Mt. Carmel, Pennsylvania, the seventh child of immigrant parents.  She started studying dance and piano at age 5.  Obtaining a B.A. and M.A. in theatre from Cornell she moved to New York where she studied and worked with the legendary dance greats Hanya Holm and Martha Graham.  She studied acting with Michael Shurtleff and Uta Hagent and worked with the twentieth century’s greatest mimes, Marcel Marceau and Macques LeCoq in Paris.  She did comedy in the Borscht belt and at the Second Avenue Theatre in New York with Menasha Skulnik and Molly Picon.  She performed in summer stock companies in Massachusetts, Long Island, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.

Ellen worked as a director and choreographer for many productions including Beggars Opera at Carnegie Recital Hall and light operas and operas including Magic Flute, Julius Caesar with famous German musical director Hugo Strelitzer and was the producer/creator of Albertini Mime Players for 19 years.  Awards include a Rockefeller grant for Mime Who’s Who Women (West) and  the Los Angeles Mayor Bradley Proclamation.

Ellen met her husband. Eugene Dow when she was assistant directing and he was starring in a production of O’Casey’s Silver Tassie  at the Carnegie Little Theatre in New York.  They married in June, 1951, performed in summer stock together and then moved to L.A.  Ellen became a teacher in the drama department at Los Angeles City College where she also directed and choreographed many musicals and operas.  Later she transferred to Pierce College in Woodland Hills where she and Gene both taught.  She retired from teaching in 1985 and soon thereafter decided to study film and TV and AFI and a new career was born.  Her first job was on The Twilight Zone.  Since then she has been in constant demand. Ellen is best remembered as the “Rapping Granny” in the Adam Sandler comedy hit The Wedding Singer.  Her numerous film credits include Wedding Crashers, Road Trip, Patch Adams, Ready to Rumble,  Sister Act I and II,  and Studio 54 as the memorable “Disco Dottie.”  Television audiences have enjoyed her most recently on Vegas, My Name Is Earl, Family Guy, Six Feet Under, Scrubs, American Dad, Will and Grace, and as a regular on Maybe It's Me.

She has just recorded an album which includes both classic songs and original material by her late husband, Eugene Dow. Ellen still lives in Los Angeles and is an avid “hat” collector so she can look a little taller.