Ellen DeGeneres
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Biography
Ellen Lee DeGeneres was born on January 26th, 1958 in Jefferson, Louisiana, which is near New Orleans. Her father was an insurance salesman and her mother was a real estate agent. She is of Irish, French, English and German decent. She has one brother. When she was thirteen her parents divorced and Ellen moved with her mother to Atlanta, Texas. She later graduated from Atlanta High School in 1976. Upon graduating she moved back to New Orleans and attended the University of New Orleans majoring in communications. She worked in several odd jobs after college and decided that creative endeavors might be more her style.
Since she already had a flair for comedy and was prompted by her friends, she began performing stand-up in local clubs. She later became the emcee for Clyde's Comedy Club in New Orleans. In 1982 she began touring; performing her routine in various venues in the United States. As word of mouth began to spread about her act she was asked to perform on several late night shows, including the infamous Tonight Show in 1986. Johnny Carson was so impressed by her performance that she was asked to sit and chat on his couch after her act, becoming the first woman at the time to be asked to do so.
In 1994 ABC offered her a starring role in her own sitcom called Ellen. The show became a big hit and ran until 1998. Ellen, the show and the comedian, received international fame when both she and her character openly admitted that she was gay on The Puppy Episode in April of 1997. Oprah Winfrey played Ellen's therapist for the episode. This made her the first openly gay television star in history at the time. The show lasted another year before being cancelled, and while she did not regret her decision to expose her sexual orientation publicly she later felt that it should not be a topic of discussion in her work.
She made another return to situation comedy in 2001 with The Ellen Show. The show was critically acclaimed but it did not win a big audience and was subsequently canceled by CBS after one year on the air. In 2003 she was offered a spot as a morning TV talk show host and thus the Ellen DeGeneres Show was born. The show became very successful with both viewers and critics alike; it was nominated for multiple Emmy Awards and won fifteen in its first three seasons.
Tidbits
- She did not know she was gay until she was 19 years old
- She collects antique mirrors
- She was the voice of Dori in Finding Nemo
- She made her acting debut in the movie Coneheads
- She started dating actress Portia de Rossi in 2004
The Aussie Ellen DeGeneres Homepage Celebrity Site of the Day on 1/7/98
AskMen.com - Ellen DeGeneres
Big Ol' Ellen DeGeneres Pages
123celebs - Ellen Degeneres
The Ellen DeGeneres Site
Ellen DeGeneres Picture Galleries
The Numbers - Ellen DeGeneres
A site that contains a filmography with box office data and a few links.
Net Glimse: Ellen DeGeneres
Ellen DeGeneres: movie stills - photos
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