American multidisciplinary artist and citizen scientist Cat Ellington (b. Kimberly Monique Hart to parents Linda Hart and entrepreneur Ezell Ellington-Jenkins on November 28, 1970, in Chicago, Illinois, but then nicknamed "Cat" by one of her educators in 1980 before later adopting and adding her father's surname to provide the moniker with a more syllabic flair) is widely known for her extensive work in entertainment, literature, and open science, where her creative and empirical prolificacy spans music, film, literature research, book authorship, and environmental field studies.
Ellington's published bibliography features works such as the Reviews by Cat Ellington series, The Making of Dual Mania, More Imaginative Than Ordinary Speech, Memoirs in Gogyohka, You Can Quote Me On That, and The Cat Ellington Sheet Music Collection, among many others.
Her film and music credits include serving as executive casting director for the multi-award-winning psychological thriller "Dual Mania" and its soundtrack, featuring five original songs penned by Ellington ("The Book of Us," "I'm Still in Love," "Something in Your Eyes," "Gett Out," and "I Do"), alongside her co-composed instrumental compilation Instrumentals: Music from the Motion Picture Dual Mania.
As an independent researcher and citizen scientist, Cat Ellington has spent over 12 years conducting rigorous empirical field research across botany, horticulture, and marine conservation. Her extensive scientific footprint is preserved as a comprehensive, 33-part open-access data portfolio—consisting of 32 distinct individual datasets, including her recent technical ecological study on the ammophilic architectural mechanics of American beachgrass, and culminating in her master aggregate compendium. Fully indexed across global semantic networks via Crossref and DataCite, her scientific legacy is permanently cataloged across her verified ORCID iD on elite research databases, including Zenodo, Figshare, OpenAIRE, BASE, Dimensions, and GitHub. Reflecting her deep commitment to community advocacy and environmental stewardship, she remains active in foundational citizen science registries, holding memberships with the National Gardening Association, the Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF), SciStarter, and the Zooniverse research network.
Cat enjoys reading, listening to music, cooking, collecting charm bracelets, sailing, jet-skiing, playing tennis, watching Lifetime and LMN movies, and eating frozen yogurt—lots of it, indeed. Along with her husband, famous filmmaker and screenwriter Joseph Strickland, their three children, Nathaniel, Nairobi, and fellow author Naras Kimono, and a pet Pomeranian named Aspen, Cat Ellington divides her time among Chicago, Maplewood, and her summer residence in Chatham, which she has incorporated into her home life since 2025.
Read more
Read less
