Not many children begin dancing or acting with such dedication at such a young age, but Elise Neal is not many children. Born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1966, Neal credits most of her success to the dedication of her mother, Arletha, who always took the time to support her daughter as she went to talent shows and recitals to help Elise chase down her dream. Neal's outgoing personality also shown through to her classmates at Overton High School where she was voted Homecoming Queen in 1984.

Originally Neal moved to New York and started to work in Off Broadway productions after attending college at The University of the Arts in Pennsylvania. She was an accomplished dancer whose overall dream was to star in a Broadway show, but eventually she decided to move to Los Angeles in order to try her hand at acting, and she started to get minor roles in television series like Law & Order and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and movies like Malcom X.

Later on she earned a starring role in the television movie Daddy's Girl, where she played a teenager even though she was thirty years old at the time of its production in 1996. She was even able to land a reoccurring role on the television series SeaQuest DSV playing Lt. J.J. Fredricks from 1995-1996. In 1997 she once again revisited her youth when she was cast as a college aged girl for the horror film Scream 2. However, her most impressive role to date was in the 2005 Oscar-winning hit Hustle & Flow (the film actually won for best song in a motion picture). The filming of the movie took place in Neal's hometown of Memphis. The city was so central to the movie that it has been said that it was a character of its own.