Ellen Ziolo has spent nearly a decade at the center of one of European basketball’s biggest stories without ever really stepping into the spotlight herself.
She grew up in Braunschweig, Germany, the same city that produced her husband, NBA point guard Dennis Schroder, and the two have known each other since he was 14 years old.
She is now his wife of more than five years, the mother of his three children, and, by his own account, a steady presence through a career that has taken the family through nine different NBA cities and, in 2023, a FIBA World Cup title that made Schroder a national hero in Germany.
Ellen Ziolo Biography
She was born December 10, 1991, in Braunschweig, Germany. Ellen Ziolo is the eldest of four children born to her mother, Beata Ziolo, a homemaker. Her father’s name has never been publicly confirmed, though he is reported to have owned or run several businesses.
Her two brothers are Daniel and Kevin Ziolo, and her younger sister is Silvia Ziolo. Ellen was educated in Braunschweig alongside her siblings.
As a child, she played volleyball for her elementary school team. She continued through high school after enrolling around 2005, while also taking singing and dance lessons and participating in her school’s theater club, reportedly graduating with an arts focus in 2009.
Career
Ellen Ziolo is a model and social media influencer. She has partnered with or appeared in campaigns connected to fashion names including Chanel, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, and Harper’s Bazaar.
She maintains an Instagram account, publicly listed as (_ellen_schroeder) with over 260,000 followers, where she shares family photos, travel content, and glimpses of the family’s life following Schroder’s career across the country.
Her husband, Her husband, Dennis Schroder, was selected 17th overall by the Atlanta Hawks in the 2013 NBA Draft after beginning his professional career with Phantoms Braunschweig in Germany.
He spent his rookie season splitting time with the Hawks and their G League affiliate, the Bakersfield Jam, before developing into a full-time NBA rotation player, with some early observers drawing comparisons to Rajon Rondo for his playmaking style.
He improved steadily through his Atlanta tenure, eventually signing a four-year, $70 million extension with the Hawks.
Since leaving Atlanta, Schroder has built one of the more well-traveled careers in recent NBA history, with stops at the Oklahoma City Thunder, Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics, Houston Rockets, Brooklyn Nets, Toronto Raptors, Golden State Warriors, and, as of early 2026, the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Ellen has been by his side through nearly every one of those moves, uprooting the family and resettling in a new city on short notice more than once, a demand of NBA life that Schroder himself has acknowledged puts real pressure on the whole household.
During his time with Golden State, Schroder shared a lighter family moment publicly, recalling how Ellen was the one who had to tell their young son the family was being traded yet again, a small window into the day-to-day reality of being married to a journeyman NBA veteran.
On the international stage, Schroder has represented Germany for over a decade, including appearances at EuroBasket 2015 and EuroBasket 2017, where he averaged 23.7 points and 5.6 assists per game.
His signature achievement came at the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup, where Germany won its first-ever World Cup title, defeating Serbia in the final after eliminating the United States in the semifinals.
Schroder was named to the tournament’s elite roster as one of Germany’s most important players in that title run, cementing his status as a national sports figure in Germany well beyond his NBA career.
Dennis Schroder’s Wife
Ellen Ziolo and Dennis have known each other since he was 14. She was in the same age group as Dennis’s brother, Cheyassin Schroder, which is how the two initially crossed paths in Braunschweig.
Their relationship developed from friendship into a romantic one starting in 2017, and the couple got engaged in 2018 after several years of on-and-off long-distance connection as both were building their own paths, Dennis climbing through the NBA and Ellen working in modeling.
Marriage
Ellen and Dennis Schroder married on July 20, 2019, in Braunschweig, Germany, in front of family and friends.
The original plan called for a small ceremony of around 50 guests, but given Schroder’s Gambian heritage on his father’s side, a small, quiet event was never realistic, and the wedding ultimately grew to roughly 350 attendees.
The couple has kept most other details of the ceremony private.
Children
Ellen and Dennis have three children together, and the timeline is one of the most consistently confused parts of their public story, so it is worth laying out clearly.
Their first child, a son named Dennis Mallick Schroder Jr., was born February 19, 2019, five months before the couple’s wedding that July.
Their second child, a daughter named Imalia Aaliyah, was born in August 2020.
Their third child, a son named Awa, was born in December 2022, completing their family of three children as of that year.
The couple keeps their children largely away from media attention and rarely shares their faces in detail online, even as they post regularly about family life in general terms.
Ellen Ziolo’s Net Worth
Ellen Ziolo’s net worth is estimated at $800,000. She has not shared her actual earnings from modeling or influencer work with the general public.
Her husband, Dennis Schroder’s net worth is estimated at $38.7 million, built from a career that has included a four year, $70 million extension with the Hawks, a one year, 5.89 million dollar deal with the Celtics signed in August 2021, a one year, 2.64 million dollar deal with the Lakers signed in September 2022, and endorsement deals with brands including Nike, Mercedes-Benz and Trident, alongside continued NBA salary through his more recent stops with the Rockets, Nets, Raptors, Warriors and Cavaliers.
