Ellen DeGeneres

January 26, 2025

Fast Facts
Background
Career Timeline
Why We Love
Surprising Facts
FAQs

Ellen Lee DeGeneres, born January 26, 1958, is a famous contemporary comedian and the host of a popular daytime talk show. She is best known to young audiences as Dory, the endearing but absentminded fish from “Finding Nemo” (2003), a role that perfectly captured her rambling, seemingly unrehearsed comic style. DeGeneres became a successful television star with her show “Ellen” in the mid-1990s after rising through the ranks of stand-up comedy during the 1980s and early 1990s. DeGeneres has also established herself as an award show host with the Grammy Awards and Primetime Emmy Awards. Today, we are going to celebrate her birthday.

Fast Facts

Full Name:

Ellen Lee DeGeneres

Nickname:

Alde, Ed

Birth date:

January 26, 1958

Age:

Zodiac Sign:

Aquarius

Height:

5' 5"

Relationship Status:

Married

Net Worth:

$500 million

Background

Ellen Lee DeGeneres was born on January 26, 1958, in Metairie, Louisiana, which is a suburb of New Orleans. She is a well-known television personality, particularly in the category of stand-up comedians. Her parents are Betty DeGeneres, a speech therapist, and Elliott Everett DeGeneres, an insurance agent. DeGeneres was merely a teenager when her parents divorced. She moved to New Orleans and enrolled at a local university to pursue communication as a major after graduating high school. However, she dropped out of university and worked several odd jobs until she discovered her true calling. She performed stand-ups in public venues, such as clubs and coffee shops.

DeGeneres’ appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” was one of the major turning points in her life. In 1991, she was honored as the best female stand-up comic at the American Comedy Awards. She also began acting in television series around the same time. Before landing her own show, she appeared in a couple of short-lived sitcoms, including “Open House” and “Laurie Hill.” DeGeneres made pop culture history when her character in “The Puppy Episode” came out as a lesbian in the spring of 1997, making her the first gay lead character on a network television sitcom. DeGeneres came out as a lesbian to millions of people in a cover story in “Time” magazine.

After the cancellation of that show, Ellen went through a rough patch in both her personal and professional life. Her very public relationship with actress Anne Heche ended. However, Ellen made a comeback in her career when she hosted the primetime Emmy Awards in the aftermath of 9/11, impressing her fellow actors and millions of viewers. “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” her daytime talk show, was both critically acclaimed and commercially successful. The show received significant praise from the industry, winning 15 Emmy Awards in its first three seasons on the air. On August 16, 2008, she married Australian actress Portia de Rossi. The couple lives in Beverly Hills and has dogs and cats as pets. They are both vegans.

Career timeline

1989

She Makes Her T.V. show Debut

Degeneres makes her regular television role debut in the Fox sitcom “Open House.”

April 1997

She Comes Out As Gay

DeGeneres comes out as a lesbian on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

2003

She Voice Acts in "Finding Nemo"

DeGeneres voices Dory, a friendly fish with short-term memory loss, in the 2003 animated Disney/Pixar film “Finding Nemo.”

September 2003

She Launches Her Talk Show

DeGeneres launches her daytime comedy talk show, “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”

November 2016

She Receives an Award From Barack Obama

DeGeneres gets awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Obama.

Why We Love Ellen DeGeneres

She is an L.G.B.T.Q. icon
DeGeneres came out on national television during a time when there was no gay character on television. She started a conversation in living rooms and defied a culture that told her she would fail if she were true to herself. DeGeneres gave hope to closeted young people around the world.
She is an animal lover
Degeneres is always bringing animal rights to the forefront in the most elegant ways. She supports organizations like the Halo Pet Foundation that help and care for animals. She is a member of the foundation's board of directors, and she and her wife practice veganism.
She is a very kind person
DeGeneres' love for all people is one of her best qualities. When it comes to how people treat one another, she uses comedy to comment on current events, but she always takes a serious stance. DeGeneres promotes kindness not only with her words but also with her actions.

5 Surprising Facts

DeGeneres has a surprising family tree
She's distantly related to the Duchess of Cambridge and Madonna.
She lost sponsorships because of her sexuality
When she came out as a lesbian in 1997, she lost a couple of sponsorship deals and struggled to cope.
She is not the funniest Degeneres
According to the comedian, Vance DeGeneres, her older brother, was the family's "real joker" when she was a kid.
Her first guest was Jennifer Aniston
On “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” she has interviewed a slew of notable figures, but Aniston was her very first guest, appearing to promote the final season of “Friends.”
Dory was written especially for her
After seeing her on T.V., Stanton, the creator of “Finding Nemo,” claims that he was inspired to make the Dory character female and cast DeGeneres.

Ellen DeGeneres FAQs

How much money does Ellen DeGeneres make per episode?

DeGeneres earns an estimated $400,000 per episode with an average of 170 episodes per season.

Is Ellen DeGeneres done with her talk show?

DeGeneres announced in May 2021 that her talk show “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” would end in 2022.

What happened to Ellen DeGeneres' “Game of Games?”

The show was struggling to maintain its audience of late, and ratings are reportedly dropping across the board. “Game of Games” on N.B.C. was canceled after four seasons.