Tracee Ellis Ross, 47, stuns in summer bikini snaps — see her entire look

Rachel Paula Abrahamson
Updated ·2 min read

Tracee Ellis Ross hosted a stylish, socially-distanced soiree for one.

“Pool party! Except I don’t have a pool. And I’m too scared to have a party,” Ross, 47, wrote on Instagram on Sunday. “Siri play ‘Summertime’ baby DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince.”

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In the pictures, the “Black-ish” actor is lounging on a picnic bench in a black string bikini and Nike Air Jordan sneakers.

Ross opened up about her modeling career when she appeared on Sunday TODAY in 2017.

“I wanted to model when I was young, mostly because of the clothes,” she told host Willie Geist. “Going into the modeling thing was actually the first place I started to find myself, strangely. I was styling my own shoots and learning that whole industry.”

But Ross, who majored in theater at Brown University, came to realize that acting was her true calling. Last month, she received her fourth Emmy nomination for her role as Dr. Rainbow Johnson in “Black-ish.” In 2017, she became the first Black woman to win a Golden Globe for best actress in a TV comedy since Debbie Allen won in 1983 for her part in "Fame."

“This is for all the women, women of color, and colorful people, whose stories, ideas, thoughts, are not always considered worthy and valid and important,” Ross said in her emotional acceptance speech. “I want you to know that I see you. We see you.”

Ross reflected on the moment while chatting with Willie three years ago.

“As a woman of color, the reality is that I’ve always felt a sense of responsibility in terms of the images that I portray and the stories that I tell,” she explained.

Though “Black-ish” is a sitcom, it tackles more serious topics like race, politics and religion.

“I think there’s a lot of things that are really revolutionary and smart in the way that our show handles very large, usually clunky subject matter but sort of unpacks it in a way we can all receive it and make it funny,” Ross said. “We become just any American family. And at the same time, we are not a family that happens to be Black, we are a Black family. And I think that is very new for how being a Black family has been presented on television.”