Ellen D. Williams grew up Santa Monica, California. She earned her B.A. in theatre performance from California State University-Long Beach. After graduating, she lived in Seattle for a number of years and performed throughout the city and traveled around the Northwest performing in an educational theatre troupe. Williams landed her first professional role in the cult musical, 'Moby Dick', produced by Sir Cameron Mackintosh. After returning to Los Angeles, she continued doing more theatre and in 2009 was nominated by LA Weekly as Leading Female Performance for her work in 'Ruby, Tragically Rotund'. She is best-known as "Patrice", Robin Scherbatsky's frenemy/coworker, on How I Met Your Mother (2005). Currently, she plays opposite Zach Galifianakis on FX's Baskets (2016). She resides in Los Angeles.