Ellen Lee DeGeneres (born January 26, 1958) is an American stand-up comedienne, television hostess and actress.
She hosts the syndicated talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and is also a judge on American Idol, having joined the show in its ninth season.
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 the Disney-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. She has won twelve Emmys and numerous awards for her work and charitable efforts.
Ellen DeGeneres’ Career in 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.
Ellen DeGeneres 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 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.
Ellen DeGeneres 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. For her performance as Dory, 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”. 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 feature 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.
79th Academy Awards
Ellen DeGeneres at the Emmy Awards, 1997
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.”
Ellen DeGeneres and the 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.
Ellen DeGeneres 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, for which she has been criticized, as her animal-friendly values clash with Procter and Gamble’s (the maker of Cover Girl Cosmetics) animal testing. Her face is the focus of new Cover Girl advertisements starting in January 2009. The beauty campaign will be DeGeneres’ first.
Ellen DeGeneres and American Idol
On September 9, 2009, it was confirmed that DeGeneres would replace Paula Abdul as a judge of the ninth season of American Idol. Her role will start only after the contestant auditions. DeGeneres also reportedly signed a contract to be a judge on the show for at least five seasons.
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