Ellen DeGeneres' Main TV Roles Show Character(s) The Ellen DeGeneres Show Ellen DeGen… Ellen Ellen Morgan The Ellen Show Ellen Richm… Hollywood Squares Center Squa… VH1 Divas Ellen DeGen… Open House Margo Van M… Laurie Hill Nancy MacIn…

Main Movie Roles 2003 - Finding Nemo 2002 - The Laramie Project 1999 - EDtv 1999 - The Love Letter 1998 - Dr. Dolittle 1996 - Mr. Wrong 1993 - Coneheads

BIOGRAPHY:

Emmy-winning talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres was born on January 26, 1958, in Metairie, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans. Her father, insurance salesman Elliot De Generes and her mother Elizabeth, a real-estate agent, were divorced when she was 16 years old. Her mother remarried, and her new husband, salesman Roy Gruessendorf, moved the family (which included Ellen's brother) to Atlanta, Texas.

After graduating from Atlanta High School in 1976, Ellen attended the University of New Orleans as a communication major, but she dropped out after one semester. She held a wide variety of jobs until she turned to stand-up comedy, making her bones at small clubs and coffeehouses before working her way up to emcee Clyde's Comedy Club by 1981. Her comedy was described as a distaff version of Bob Newhart. Beginning in the early 1980s, she toured nationally and was named the funniest person in America after winning a competition sponsored by the cable network Showtime. This lead to better gigs, including her first appearance on "The Tonight Show" (1962) with Johnny Carson (I) in 1986.

Though DeGeneres' early forays into series television were not successful (she appeared as a supporting player in two short-lived TV situation comedies in the period 1989-92, "Open House" (1989) and "Laurie Hill" (1992)), she scored a hit headlining her own 1994 sitcom on ABC "These Friends of Mine" (later renamed "Ellen" (1994) after its first season). She made TV history in April 1997 when her character, and DeGeneres herself personally, revealed that she was a lesbian. However, the show was canceled the following season due to declining ratings, after which DeGeneres returned to the stand-up circuit. In 2001, DeGeneres launched a new series, "The Ellen Show" (2001), on CBS, but it suffered from poor ratings and was canceled.

Redemption as a television artiste came in 2003, when DeGeneres' daytime talk show, "Ellen: The Ellen DeGeneres Show" (2003) proved to be both a critical hit and a commercial success. Along with good ratings, the show has won unprecedented kudos from the industry, winning 15 Emmy Awards in its first three seasons on the air and becoming the first talk show in TV history to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show in its first three seasons.

DeGeneres has also made a name for herself as a host of awards shows. She hosted the Grammy Awards in 1996 and 1997, as well as the Primetime Emmy Awards in 2001 and 2005. In February 2007, she will have the ultimate TV awards show gig, hosting the Oscars.


TRIVIA:

• (August 2000) Split with girlfriend 'Anne Heche' (qv) after being together for 3 years.
• Worked as a paralegal before becoming a comedienne.
• Daughter of 'Betty DeGeneres' (qv).
• Voted "Funniest Person In America" in 1982.
• Named "Entertainer of the Year" by Entertainment Weekly 26 December 1997/2 January 1998, issues 411/412.
• Spoofed on _"MADtv" (1995)_ (qv) by comedian 'Nicole Parker (III)' (qv).
• When Ellen came out as a lesbian on her show in April 1997, ABC's affiliate in Birmingham, Alabama, refused to air the landmark episode. Some of the show's sponsors, including Chrysler, withdrew their advertisements.
• Ellen and her girlfriend, 'Portia de Rossi' (qv), got married on August 16th, 2008 at Ellen's home in Beverly Hills, California.