Name :Ellen Degeneres
Birth name : Ellen Lee DeGeneres
Date of Birth : January 26, 1958
Place of Birth : Metairie, Louisiana, U.S. Age : 51
Profession : American stand-up comedienne,
Nationality : American
Spouse : Portia de Rossi (m. 2008–present)
She has hosted both the Academy Awards and the Primetime Emmys. As a film actress, she starred in Mr. Wrong, appeared in EDtv and The Love Letter, and provided the voice of Dory in Pixar’s animated film Finding Nemo. She also starred in two television sitcoms, Ellen from 1994 to 1998 and The Ellen Show from 2001 to 2002. In 1997, during the fourth season of Ellen, she came out publicly as a lesbian in an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Shortly afterwards, her character Ellen Morgan also came out to a therapist played by Winfrey and the series went on to explore various LGBT issues as well as the coming out process.
Ellen DeGeneres was born at Ochsner Hospital in Metairie, Louisiana to Elliot (insurance salesman) and Betty (real-estate agent). She is of French, English, German and Irish descent. Along with her brother Vance she was raised as a Christian Scientist until the age of thirteen, when she left the religion. This was when her parents were divorced. Shortly after the divorce DeGeneres and her mother moved from the New Orleans area to Atlanta, Texas. She graduated from Atlanta High School on May 21, 1976. She moved back to New Orleans to attend the University of New Orleans, where she majored in communications. After one semester, she left school to do clerical work in a law firm. She also held a job selling clothes, including dresses, at the chain-store the Merry-Go-Round. Other working experiences included a waitress (at two different restuarants), a house painter, a hostess, a bartender and an oyster shucker. Finally, DeGeneres realized she didn’t want to “answer to a boss” and started to figure out what she really wanted to do.
Whenever Ellen DeGeneres’ friends put together a show or party, she was asked to do a comedy routine. She did an act and was soon asked to perform as a stand-up comedian at small clubs and coffeehouses, and eventually became the emcee at Clyde‘s Comedy Club (the only comedy place in New Orleans at the time). While working at Clyde‘s in 1981, DeGeneres recorded her club performances. After traveling around the United States performing her comedy act, she was chosen in a national competition in 1982 by the cable channel HBO as the funniest person in America. She then appeared on late night television and comedy programs. Soon afterward, DeGeneres was invited to perform on the Tonight Show by booking agent/Producer Jim McCawley for her first appearance in 1986. She was the first female to ever be asked over to the couch to visit with Johnny Carson on her first visit. Jim McCawley truly believed that she was going to be a hit and often spoke in praise of her when her name was mentioned. She also appeared as a stand-up comedian as early as on the HBO Tenth Annual Young Comedians special, where she was introduced as an up-and-coming talent by Young Comedians show veteran Harry Anderson. Before getting her own show, DeGeneres began her television career on the short-lived TV sitcom Open House (1989-1990) and Laurie Hill (1992).
Career
Stand-up comedy
DeGeneres started performing stand-up comedy at small clubs and coffeehouses. By 1981 she was the emcee at Clyde‘s Comedy Club in New Orleans. Degeneres describes Woody Allen and Steve Martin as her main influences at this time. In the early 1980s she began to tour nationally, being named Showtime’s Funniest Person in America in 1982. In 1986 she appeared for the first time on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, who likened her to Bob Newhart. When Carson invited her over for an onscreen chat after her performance, she became the first female comedian in the show’s history to whom this honor was bestowed.
Early screen work
Television and film work in the late 1980s and early 1990s included roles on television in Open House and in the film Coneheads.
Ellen (sitcom, 1994–1998)
DeGeneres’ comedy material became the basis of the successful 1994-1998 sitcom Ellen, named These Friends of Mine during its first season. The ABC show was popular in its first few seasons due in part to DeGeneres’ style of quirky observational humor; it was often referred to as a “female Seinfeld.”
Ellen reached its height of popularity in February 1997, when DeGeneres made her homosexuality public on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Subsequently her character on the sitcom came out of the closet in April to her therapist, played by Oprah Winfrey, that she was gay. The coming out episode, entitled “The Puppy Episode”, was one of the highest-rated episodes of the show, but later episodes of the series would fail to match its popularity, and after declining ratings, the show was canceled. DeGeneres returned to the stand-up comedy circuit, and would later re-establish herself as a successful talk show host.
Ellen’s Energy Adventure
DeGeneres starred in a series of films for a show named Ellen’s Energy Adventure, which is part of the Universe of Energy attraction and pavilion at Walt Disney World’s Epcot. The film also featured Bill Nye, Alex Trebek, Michael Richards and Jamie Lee Curtis. The show revolved around DeGeneres falling asleep and finding herself in an energy-themed version of Jeopardy!, playing against an old rival, portrayed by Curtis, and Albert Einstein. The next film had DeGeneres hosting an educational look at energy, co-hosted with Nye. The ride first opened on September 15, 1996, as Ellen’s Energy Crisis but was quickly renamed to the more positive-sounding Ellen’s Energy Adventure.
The Ellen Show
DeGeneres returned to series television in 2001 with a new CBS sitcom, The Ellen Show. Though her character was again a lesbian, it was not the central theme of the show.
2001 Emmy Awards
DeGeneres received wide exposure on November 4, 2001 when she hosted the televised broadcast of the Emmy Awards. Presented after two cancellations due to network concerns that a lavish ceremony following the September 11, 2001 attacks would appear insensitive, the show required a more somber tone that would also allow viewers to temporarily forget the tragedy. DeGeneres received several standing ovations for her performance that evening which included the line: “We’re told to go on living our lives as usual, because to do otherwise is to let the terrorists win, and really, what would upset the Taliban more than a homosexual woman wearing a suit in front of a room full of Jews?”
In August 2005, DeGeneres hosted the 2005 Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony which was held on September 18, 2005. This was three weeks after Hurricane Katrina, making it the second time she hosted the Emmys following a national tragedy. She also hosted the Grammy Awards in 1996 and in 1997.
Finding Nemo and voice acting
DeGeneres lent her voice to the role of Dory, a fish with short-term memory loss, in the summer 2003 hit animated Disney/Pixar film Finding Nemo. The film’s director, Andrew Stanton, claimed that he chose her because she “changed the subject five times before one sentence had finished” on her show.[8] DeGeneres won the Saturn Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films for “Best Supporting Actress”, “Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie” from the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards and the Annie Award from the International Animated Film Association for “Outstanding Voice Acting” for her work. She was also nominated for a Chicago Film Critics Association Award in the “Best Supporting Actress” category. She also provided the voice of the dog in the prologue of the Eddie Murphy film Dr. Dolittle.
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
DeGeneres launched a daytime television talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show in September 2003. Amid a crop of several celebrity-hosted talk shows surfacing in at the beginning of that season, such as those of Sharon Osbourne and Rita Rudner, her show has consistently risen in the Nielsen Ratings and received widespread critical praise. It was nominated for 11 Daytime Emmy Awards in its first season, winning four, including Best Talk Show. The show has won 25 Emmy Awards in its first three seasons on the air. DeGeneres is known for her dancing and singing with the audience at the beginning of the show and during commercial breaks. She often gives away free prizes and trips to her studio audience with the help of her sponsors.
DeGeneres celebrated her thirty-year class reunion by flying her graduating class to California to be guests on her show in February, 2006. She presented Atlanta High School with a surprise gift of a new electronic LED marquee sign.
In May 2006, DeGeneres made a surprise appearance at the Tulane University commencement in New Orleans. Following George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton to the podium, she came out in a bathrobe and furry slippers. “They told me everyone would be wearing robes,” she said.
The show broadcast for a week from Universal Studios Orlando in March 2007. Guests that week included Jennifer Lopez and Lynyrd Skynyrd, and skits included DeGeneres going on the Hulk Roller Coaster Ride and the Jaws Boat Ride.
In May 2007, DeGeneres was placed on bed rest due to a torn ligament in her back. She continued hosting her show from a hospital bed, tended to by a nurse, explaining “the show must go on, as they say.” Guests sat in hospital beds as well.
On May 1, 2009, DeGeneres celebrated her 1000th episode, featuring celebrity guests such as Oprah, Justin Timberlake, Paris Hilton, among others.
On September 7, 2006, DeGeneres was selected to host the 79th Academy Awards ceremony, which took place on February 25, 2007. This makes her the first openly gay or lesbian person to have hosted the event. During the Awards show DeGeneres said, “What a wonderful night, such diversity in the room, in a year when there’s been so many negative things said about people’s race, religion and sexual orientation. And I want to put this out there: if there weren’t blacks, Jews and gays, there would be no Oscars, or anyone named Oscar, when you think about that.” Reviews of her hosting gig were positive, with one saying, “DeGeneres rocked, as she never forgot that she wasn’t just there to entertain the Oscar nominees but also to tickle the audience at home.” In fact, Regis Philbin said in an interview that “the only complaint was there’s not enough Ellen.”
DeGeneres was nominated for an Emmy Award as host of the Academy Awards broadcast.
2007 Writers Guild strike
DeGeneres, like many actors who are also writers, is a member of both the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) and the Writers Guild of America (WGA). Thus, although DeGeneres verbally supported the 2007 WGA strike she did not support it when she crossed the picket line the day after the strike began. Her representatives said that she was competing with other first-run syndicated shows during the competitive November sweeps period, and that she could not break her contracts or risk her show lose its time slot. As a show of solidarity with the strikers, DeGeneres omitted her monologue during the strike, typically written by WGA writers. The WGA condemned her while the AFTRA defended her.
Commercial spokeswoman
In November 2004, DeGeneres appeared, dancing, in an ad campaign for American Express. Her most recent American Express commercial, a two-minute black-and-white spot where she works with animals, debuted in November 2006 and was created by Ogilvy and Mather. In 2007, the commercial won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Commercial.
DeGeneres began working with Cover Girl Cosmetics in September 2008. Her face is the focus of new Cover Girl advertisements starting in January 2009. The beauty campaign will be DeGeneres’ first.
Personal life
DeGeneres was in a relationship (1997-2000) with former Another World actress Anne Heche who went on to marry cameraman Coley Laffoon. From 2001 to 2004, DeGeneres and actress/director/photographer Alexandra Hedison were in a relationship. They appeared on the cover of The Advocate after their separation had already been announced to the media.
Since 2004, DeGeneres has been in a relationship with former Ally McBeal and Arrested Development star Portia de Rossi. After the overturn of the same-sex marriage ban in California, DeGeneres announced on a May 2008 show that she and de Rossi were engaged, and gave de Rossi a three-carat pink diamond ring. They were married on August 16, 2008 at their home, with 19 guests including their respective mothers. The passage of Proposition 8 cast doubt on the legal status of their marriage but a subsequent Supreme Court judgement validated it because it occured before 4 November 2008.
They live in Beverly Hills, with three dogs and four cats, and both are vegan.
In her book, Love, Ellen, DeGeneres’ mother, Betty DeGeneres, describes being initially shocked when her daughter came out as a lesbian, but has become one of her strongest supporters, an active member of PFLAG and spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign’s Coming Out Project. She is also a breast cancer survivor.
In 2007, Forbes estimated DeGeneres’ net worth as US$65 million.
Awards
Daytime Emmy Awards
* Outstanding Talk Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show – 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007
* Outstanding Talk Show Host, The Ellen DeGeneres Show – 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
* Outstanding Special Class Writing, The Ellen DeGeneres Show – 2005, 2006, 2007
Emmy Awards
* Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series, Ellen: “The Puppy Episode” – 1997
People’s Choice Awards
* Favorite Funny Female Star – 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
* Favorite Talk Show Host – 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
* Favorite Yes I Chose This Star – 2008
Filmography
Television
* Women of the Night (1988)
* Open House (1989-1990)
* Laurie Hill (1992-1993)
* Roseanne as Dr. Whitman (1995)
* Ellen (1994-1998)
* The Larry Sanders Show as herself in ‘Ellen, or isn’t she?’ (1996)
* Mad About You as Nancy Bloom (1998)
* If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000)
* Ellen DeGeneres: The Beginning (2000)
* Will & Grace as Sister Louise (2001)
* On the Edge (2001)
* The Ellen Show (2001-2002)
* Ellen DeGeneres: Here and Now (2003)
* The Ellen DeGeneres Show (2003-present)
* Six Feet Under as herself in “Parallel Play” (2004)
* 57th Primetime Emmy Awards 2005
* 79th Academy Awards (Host) (February 25, 2007)
* Ellen’s Really Big Show (2007)
* American Idol: Idol Gives Back (Co-host)
* Deal or No Deal as a model (2008)
* Ellen’s Really Big Even Bigger Show (2008)
Film
* Arduous Moon (1990) (short subject)
* Wisecracks (1991) (documentary)
* Coneheads (1993)
* Trevor (1994) (short subject)
* Ellen’s Energy Adventure (1996) (short subject)
* Mr. Wrong as Martha Alston(1996)
* Goodbye Lover (1998)
* Dr. Dolittle as John Dolittle’s dog (1998) (voice)
* EDtv as Cynthia (1999)
* The Love Letter as Janet Hall (1999)
* If These Walls Could Talk 2 as Kal (2000)
* Pauly Shore Is Dead as herself (2003)
* Finding Nemo as Dory (2003) (voice)
* My Short Film (2004) (short subject)
Ellen Trivia
- Ellen was voted “Funniest Person In America” in 1982.
- “Best Female Club Standup,” Comedy Awards 1991.
- Named “Entertainer of the Year” by Entertainment Weekly 26 December 1997/2 January 1998, issues 411/412.
- Spoke at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Pointed out that many plots and images in Hollywood are “heterosexist,” meaning that the filmmakers allow heterosexual characters to dominate the screen. She would like to see actors and actresses portray more gay and lesbian couples. [1999]
- She worked as a paralegal before becoming a comedienne.
- She has two dogs named Bootsie and Muffin.
- When Ellen came out as a lesbian on her show in April 1997, ABC’s in Birmingham, Alabama, refused to air the landmark episode. Some of the show’s sponsors, including Chrysler, withdrew their advertisements.
- Was initially reluctant to do a love scene with Sharon Stone in If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000), but Ellen’s then-girlfriend Anne Heche, who was directing this particular segment of the film, encouraged her to do it. Ellen eventually gave in.
- Split with girlfriend Anne Heche after being together for 3 years. [August 2000]
- Her last name is pronounced “duh-generous”.
- She used to sell vacuum cleaners before she was discovered.
- She has written two books, “My Point… And I Do Have One”, a New York Times bestseller for six months, and “The Funny Thing Is…”, also a New York Times bestseller.
- She was originally offered Sandra Bullock’s role in Speed (1994/I).
- She is the daughter of Betty DeGeneres.
- She ended her four-year relationship with photographer-director Alexandra Hedison. [December 2004]
- Spoofed on “MADtv” (1995) by comedian Nicole Parker.
- She is of French (paternal grandfather), Irish, English, and German descent.
- Ellen was the first female stand-up guest to be called to the “hot seat” on her first guest appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” (1962).
- She graduated from Atlanta High School in Atlanta, Texas, in 1976.
- She is only the second woman to host the Oscars on her own. The first was Whoopi Goldberg.
- She is a sweetheart of the fraternity Sigma Tau Gamma.
- When she appeared on the April 14, 1997 cover of Time magazine, readers’ voted it the magazine’s best ever.
- Good friends with actress Courteney Cox.
- Ellen and her girlfriend, Portia de Rossi, got married on August 16th, 2008 at Ellen’s home in Beverly Hills, California.
- She is the younger sister of Vance DeGeneres.
i always watch Deal or No Deal during my past time, what a great show and a great host”~,
i would have to say that Ellen Degeneres is really great in having her show, it is an informative tv show ~’-
“deal or no deal” was one of the biggest game show ever on TV*;”
howie mandel of deal or no deal is a super great host’,-
oh i love Ellen Degeneres, you can always say that she is the best talk show host ::