Coco Elysses

Coco Elysses Actress-Musician-Composer-Screenwriter-Doula

Coco Elysses, a modern day renaissance woman hails from Robbins, Illinois and is a producer, musician, actress, voice-over artist, screenwriter and poet. She is the second woman Chair of the 56 year old venerable AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians). During their second season, she was a featured musician in the critically claimed FOX drama Empire.

In 2014, Coco was a semi-finalist in Lifetime Television Unscripted Development Pipeline. Coco’s voice can be heard at the Adler Planetarium in the instillation, Skywatchers of Africa. Coco’s voice can also be heard in, Saint’s Row video game, EverQuest II and Watchdogs. In 2018 she won the ALTA Award for Best Original Music in a Play and the 2019 non-equity Jeff Award for Best Original Music in a Play for Tilikum, the first for an African American woman. Coco composed music and performed in Baltimore Center Stage’s touring mobile unit in Antigone as Tiresias.

In 2015 Coco was a featured actress in George E. Lewis’ film, Afterword and in the opera of the same name at The Museum of Contemporary Art. She was also in two exhibits, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the AACM (The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) at The DuSable Museum of

African American History and the Museum of Contemporary Art. She performed at the Frankfurt, Germany Jazz Festival with Generation Now of the AACM and at the Made in Chicago Jazz Festival in Poznan, Poland with Voice Heard- a collective of women musicians of the AACM. Coco was a featured actress on Chicago PD and a featured musician on Chicago Med.

She recently appeared in the Midwest premier of Detroit 67’ at Northlight Theatre directed by Ron O.J. Parsons.

Coco was also a featured musician in the book, Black Women and Music: More than The Blues, documenting historical female musicians. Coco performed with the Great Black Music Ensemble of the AACM in Pisa, Italy for The Insolent Noise Festival, at Millennium Park Chicago, The Chicago Blues Festival for the Chicago Jazz Festival. She has also performed with Renee Baker’s Chicago Modern Orchestra Project. She also performed with Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. She was a featured artist in Taiko Legacy 8, 10 & 11 at the Museum of Contemporary Art with Tatsu Aoki, and Tsukasa Taiko, Miyumi Project at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival. Coco’s poetry is featured in 99 New Poems: A Contemporary Anthology. A few of her noted recordings were in Chile, South America, with Raiza, on their CD, Latin Soul-EMI and Nicole Mitchell’s Africa Rising, Skylanding- The music of Yoko Ono by the Miyumi Project. Raw and Alive 1 & 2- Miyumi Project 2018, The Best of Miyumi Project 2020, Resurrection Suite with Carlos Pride and Ben Lamar Gay. Coco is a member of AFTRA-SAG, AEA, AACM and the AFM.