Emmy-winning talk show host Ellen Lee DeGeneres was born in Metairie, Louisiana, a New Orleans suburb. She is the daughter of Betty DeGeneres (née Elizabeth Jane Pfeffer), a speech therapist, and Elliott Everett DeGeneres, an insurance agent. Her brother is musician and producer Vance DeGeneres. Her parents divorced when she was 16 years old. Her mother remarried, and her new husband, salesman Roy Gruessendorf, moved the family to Atlanta, Texas.
After graduating from Atlanta High School in 1976, Ellen attended the University of New Orleans as a communications 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 led to better gigs, including her first appearance on 约翰尼卡森今夜秀 (1962) in 1986.
Though DeGeneres's 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" (renamed Ellen (1994) after its first season). She made TV history in April 1997, when her character, and DeGeneres 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 artist came in 2003, when DeGeneres's daytime talk show, 艾伦秀 (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 had the ultimate TV awards show gig, hosting the Oscars, which she hosted again in 2014.
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 film 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]
Worked as a paralegal before becoming a comedian.
Has two dogs named Bootsie and Muffin.
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.
Was initially reluctant to do a love scene with 莎朗·斯通 in 为你钟情2 (2000), but Ellen's then-girlfriend 安·海切, who was directing this particular segment of the film, encouraged her to do it. Ellen eventually gave in.
Split with girlfriend 安·海切 on August 16, 2000. The two were introduced by writer Roger Friedman and actor 文斯·沃恩 at a "Vanity Fair" party at Morton's restaurant on March 24, 1997. DeGeneres made her relationship with Heche red-carpet official just 16 days after they met. Prior to that, she'd never gone public with any of her girlfriends.
Her last name is pronounced "duh-generous.".
Used to sell vacuum cleaners before she was discovered.
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.
Daughter of Betty DeGeneres.
Ended her four-year relationship with photographer-director 亚历山德拉·哈迪森. [December 2004]
Spoofed on 疯狂电视 (1995) by comedian 妮可·帕克.
She has Cajun/French, English, Irish, German, and distant Dutch and Swiss-German ancestry. Her surname is French.
Was the first female stand-up guest to be called to the "hot seat" on her first guest appearance on 约翰尼卡森今夜秀 (1962).
Attended and graduated from Atlanta High School in Atlanta, Texas, in 1976.
Is only the second woman to host the Oscars on her own. The first was 乌比·戈德堡.
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 柯特妮·考克斯, 凯蒂·佩里, 詹妮弗·安妮斯顿, 奥普拉·温弗瑞, 帕米拉·安德森, 贾斯汀·汀布莱克, 克里斯汀·肯诺恩斯, and Steve Harvey.
Ellen and her girlfriend, 波西亚·德, got married on August 16, 2008 at Ellen's home in Beverly Hills, California.
Younger sister of Vance DeGeneres.
Gave the commencement speech at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, in May 2009.
Auditioned for the role of Jody in 低俗小说 (1994), but 罗姗娜·阿奎特 was cast instead.
Quit smoking cigarettes using the Allen Carr method (also known as Easy Way). She had been a longtime smoker and was having trouble quitting.
Animal advocate and co-owner of Halo.
Ellen's first major-league baseball game was at Target Field in Minnesota, home of the Minnesota Twins. She answered two questions right about Joe Mauer and got a Minnesota Twins Joe Mauer jersey.
Winner of the 2012 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, awarded by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6270 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California, on September 4, 2012.
Born at 3:00 a.m.
Ellen lived in the apartment used in Annabelle (2014). While promoting the movie in her show, she explained: "The apartment in the movie was my first apartment that I moved to in L.A. That was the building I lived in; where they shot the movie. I was watching it going: 'That looks familiar' and it was my building. It was scary back then too.".
Ellen was raised as a Christian Scientist until the age of 13, when her parents divorced. When Ellen's mother remarried, they converted to her new husband's beliefs.
In 2010 Ellen founded her record label eleveneleven with her TV production company A Very Good Production. Its first-signed artist was teen sensation 格雷森·蔡斯, after he created quite a stir on YouTube. The genesis of Ellen's company name resulted from her frequent sightings of 11:11 on digital timepieces, her chance discovery of the singer on the 11th of the month, and the fact that his soccer jersey number was 11. Ellen's name also has two lower case adjacent L's, which resemble the number 11.
She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, by President 巴拉克·奥巴马, in a live televised ceremony held in the East Room of the White House, on November 22, 2016, along with 20 other recipients, the largest and final Medal of Freedom ceremony of Obama's presidency. At that ceremony, the 21 recipients, in alphabetical order, were: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Elouise Cobell (posthumous award given to her son), 艾伦·德杰尼勒斯, 罗伯特·德尼罗, Richard Garwin, 比尔·盖茨, Melinda Gates, Frank Gehry, 玛格丽特·哈米尔顿 (as Margaret H. Hamilton), 汤姆·汉克斯, Rear Admiral Grace Hopper (posthumous award given to her niece), 迈克尔·乔丹, 林璎, 洛恩·迈克尔斯, Newton Minow, Eduardo Padron (as Eduardo Padrón), 罗伯特·雷德福, 黛安娜·罗斯, Vin Scully, 布鲁斯·斯普林斯汀, and 西西莉·泰森.
Owns a production company called A Very Good Production.
Collects watches.
Worked as a waitress at Fridays.
Is 11th cousin to 麦当娜.
Dropped out of the University of New Orleans after a semester.
Is 14th cousin, twice removed, to Kate Middleton.
Was sued by record labels for unpaid licenses for the songs she plays on her talk show but the suit was quickly settled.
Worked as a floor clerk at JC Penny.
Was the only female comedian to be invited to sit with 约翰尼·卡森 on 约翰尼卡森今夜秀 (1962).
In 2009 PETA named her Woman of The Year.
As of June 2017, she is the only female to host the Emmy Awards and the Academy Awards.
Worked as a bartender and a hostess at a restaurant.
There's an "Ellen" ride at Epcot Center.
Has an annual salary of $75 million for 艾伦秀 (2003).
Always sets her watch to Mountain Standard Time.
Has a net worth of $345 million. [May 2017]
Is a huge fan of the racquet sport badminton.
Contrary to urban legend, Ellen never auditioned for the role of Phoebe Buffay on 老友记 (1994) and she never turned it down.
She had already been outed on the cover of tabloids years before she officially came out, so it really wasn't a big surprise.
After the cancellation of her sitcom "Ellen", Ellen was out of work for 3 years as no one was booking her after coming out on her sitcom. She was nearly broke until Andrew Stanton offered her the role of Dory, the memory challenged Blue Tang fish in "Finding Nemo". A role in which many feel she stole the movie.
First celebrity crush was the King of Pop 迈克尔·杰克逊.
Blue sneakers
Often wears pants
Quick comedic pauses
Blonde hair, often short
Blue eyes
