Ellen Lee DeGeneres (born January 26, 1958) is an American comedian, actor, writer, and TV show host. She is married to Portia de Rossi, and is notable as one of the most well-known openly lesbian celebrities.
Her initial start was in standup comedy in the early 1980s. From there, she moved into acting for both film and television.
Her self-titled sitcom Ellen, the first series in which she played a starring role, was a ratings success and made her a household name. However, her decision to publicly come out as a lesbian at the end of the show's run – at a time when homosexuality was still illegal in parts of the United States and even many in Hollywood chose to fake straight to keep their careers – resulted in backlash against her from said corners and derailed her career for a few years.
Ellen recovered and eventually found her niche in daytime television, where she has hosted her well-received (again self-titled) talk show since 2003, winning multiple Emmys. She has become the unofficial successor to Oprah Winfrey, and booking a spot on her show is considered a very big deal. She also dabbled in voice acting, gaining critical praise for her role of Dory in Finding Nemo and its sequel, Finding Dory.
Ellen married her longtime girlfriend Portia de Rossi as soon as it became legal to do so in California (making hers one of the few "grandfathered-in" gay marriages between the passage of anti-gay law Proposition 8 and its de facto rejection by the Supreme Court five years later).
In addition to winning multiple Emmys, she has hosted that awards show twice, the Grammys twice, and the Academy Awards twice – her Oscar hosting in 2014 containing a infamous celebrity selfie that broke Twitter (and turned out to have been a marketing stunt organized by Samsung), becoming the most retweeted tweet on the platformnote . She was awarded the Congressional Medal of Freedom, the highest honor to be bestowed on a U.S. citizen, by President Barack Obama in 2016 for her contributions towards LGBT acceptance in the country.
In mid-2020, long-standing industry rumors bubbled to the surface after serious allegations were made about the working environment on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and about Ellen's own treatment of non-celebrities off-camera. The accusations led to an internal investigation that concluded with the sacking of some of the show's long-time producers, but the show was allowed to continue under new management. However, in early 2021, it was announced that the show would end in 2022; the final episode aired on May 26 of that year.
Works in which DeGeneres has appeared:
- Dr. Dolittle (1998)
- Ellen (1994–98)
- EDtv (1999)
- Ellen's Energy Adventure (1996-2017)
- If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000)
- American Idol (Judge, 2009)
- The Ellen Show (2001–02)
- Finding Nemo (2003) (voice)
- Finding Dory (2016)
- The Ellen Degeneres Show (2003–2022)
- Ellen's Game of Games (2018–2021)
Works as Producer:
- Green Eggs and Ham (2019) (2019-present) (executive)
- Little Ellen (2021-present)
- The Masked Dancer (2021)
