Ellis attended the Australian Institute of Sport in 2008 and 2009, playing for them in the South East Australian Basketball League. He was also a member of the Under 19 Australian Emus team that finished fourth in the 2009 International Basketball Federation World Under 19 Championships. In 2011-2012, Ellis completed his first full season, finishing third on the team in scoring with 10.1ppg, and 3.4rpg.
He played college basketball for Saint Louis University in the United States, played professionally in the NBL for the Sydney Kings and Illawarra Hawks, and has represented Australia at the 2013 Summer Universiade in Russia. In his freshman season at Saint Louis, Ellis played 22 games (19 starts), averaging 10.5ppg, 3.3rpg, and 1.2apg. He missed the first 14 games of the season before being cleared by the National Collegiate Athletic Association and joined the team in January 2010.
Ellis was averaging 6.5 points and 3.7 rebounds per game in his sophomore season before dislocating his shoulder against Xavier on 5 February 2011 that subsequently ended his season.
He managed 21 games (four starts) in 2010-2011. In 34 games, he came off the bench in all but one, as he was a key sixth man for the Billikens.
In 2012-2013, Ellis was named the Atlantic 10 Sixth Manitoba of the Year, coming off the bench in all 35 games of the season. In those 35 games, he averaged 10.1ppg, 3.5rpg, and 1.1spg.
On 13 July 2013, Ellis signed a two-year deal with the Sydney Kings.
However, he did not joined the Kings until December 2013 as he was still finishing off his business degree at Saint Louis. On 25 March 2014, the Kings took up the option of Ellis" second year of his two-year contract, re-signing him for the 2014-2015 season. On 31 March 2014, Ellis signed with the Stirling Senators for the rest of the 2014 State Basketball League season.
In 21 games for the Senators in 2014, he averaged 21.0 points, 8.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.4 blocks per game.
On 11 February 2015, he re-signed with the Senators for the 2015 season. In his two seasons playing for the Sydney Kings, Ellis averaged 6.2 points and 3.3 rebounds in 44 games.
After averaging 23.9 points and 9.2 rebounds over the first nine games of the season with Stirling, Ellis was temporarily replaced in the line-up by Jordan Wild on 30 April 2015. Ellis returned to the Senators line-up on 6 June to score 14 points against the East Perth Eagles.
He played out the rest of the season with Stirling and finished with averages of 25.1 points and 9.1 rebounds in 20 games.
On 10 August 2015, Ellis signed with the Illawarra Hawks for the 2015-2016 NBL season. Three days later, he re-signed with the Senators for the 2016 State Basketball League season. Ellis is the son of retired Perth Wildcats legend, Mike Ellis.
