Ellen Hovde grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After high school, she spent her days learning stenography (at her father's urging) and her nights as a stagehand and dresser at the Pittsburgh Playhouse. She then attended Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon), graduating from the Drama Department, where she studied stage design, lighting, acting and directing. Moving to New York City, she became an apprentice to German film editor and producer Paul Falkenberg. Her later work as an editor included stints at Drew Associates with Bob Drew, D.A. Pennebaker, Ricky Leacock and others, as well as a number of films made with David and Albert Maysles, including Christo's Valley Curtain (nominated for an Oscar) and Gimme Shelter and Salesman (made also with Charlotte Zwerin. She met her now-partner Muffie Meyer while co-directing Grey Gardens with the Maysles brothers. Hovde and Meyer also co-edited that film. She was a founding member of Women in Film, and served on its board in the mid-seventies. Her interests are eclectic - she has worked at Woods Hole as Assistant in Marine Ecology and now raises Shetland sheep on her Vermont farm (while producing films and videos in New York). Filmmaking agrees with her; she enjoys learning about new topics, and loves finding ways to explore them on film and video. Married twice, she has two children, Trev and Teresa Huxley, and two young grandchildren, Zina and Bryn.
