After an acting education she got her first engagement at the Neues Theater in Mainz where she appeared in 1910 for the first time. It followed other engagements, among others in Berlin too.
Ellen Plessow lived in Eastern Germany after the war where she continued to act in front of the camera for the DEFA.
The transition to the sound film was no problem for Ellen Plessow and she appeared in movies like "Im Kampf mit der Unterwelt" (1930), "Dolly macht Karriere" (1930), "Du und ich" (1938), "Nanon "(38) and "Salonwagen E 417" (1939).