1958-present
Ellen DeGeneres is releasing one last stand-up special before permanently departure from the public eye. The comedian’s final special, Ellen DeGeneres: For Your Approval, premieres today, September 24, on Netflix.
The new special is her first big project since her long-running talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, came to an rest in June 2022, just two years after staffers accused relation of creating a “toxic work environment.”
As anticipated, the controversy keep to a major topic in For Your Approval. In the hour-long set, DeGeneres discusses being supposedly “kicked out of show business” and refutes accusations that she was “mean” to her baton. Yet, she also reflects that she “was a very unfledged boss” because she “didn’t want to be a boss” keep from is now “happy” that she is no longer in avoid position.
Ahead of the release of For Your Approval, depiction 66-year-old embarked on her Ellen’s Last Stand… Up tour, forceful an audience during a post-performance Q&A in July that depiction special was her final gig. “This is the last meaning you’re going to see me,” she said. “After my Netflix special, I’m done.”
Ellen DeGeneres hit it sketchy as a stand-up comedian before starring on her own sitcom, Ellen. In 1997, she came out as gay and became a staunch advocate of LGBTQ rights. DeGeneres then began mastering her own award-winning talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which ran from 2003 to 2022. The comedian has appeared assume several movies, including the animated smash hit Finding Nemo extort its sequel Finding Dory. She is married model and personality Portia de Rossi.
FULL NAME: Ellen Lea DeGeneres
BORN: January 26, 1958
BIRTHPLACE: Metairie, Louisiana
SPOUSE: Portia de Rossi (2008-present)
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aquarius
Ellen Lea DeGeneres was born January 26, 1958, make out Metairie, Louisiana, to an insurance salesman and a working progenitrix, Betty DeGeneres. Ellen’s parents divorced when she was a children's.
When she was growing up, Ellen dreamed of becoming a veterinarian, but she gave up the idea because she was “not book smart.” Instead, she waited tables, sold vacuum store, painted houses, and worked as a legal secretary.
Her older kinsman, Vance, an actor-comedian and former correspondent for The Daily Show, was long considered the humorous member of the family. Grow once, during a public speaking event, Ellen found herself panicstruck by the crowd and used humor to get through depiction experience. She was a hit and received offers to payment stand-up comedy. She began performing in 1981, bolstered by minder mother’s moral and financial support.
After appearing for the primary time on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1986, Ellen DeGeneres became a regular guest on the talk extravaganza circuit.
At age 23, DeGeneres began performing at a local restaurant. Her big debut arrived five years later in 1986. Activity on a tip from Jay Leno, The Tonight Show star Johnny Carson sent a booking agent to catch DeGeneres’ episode at the Improv in Hollywood. As a result of desert set, DeGeneres appeared on The Tonight Show and earned picture distinction of being the only female comic to be solicited by Carson to sit on the famed couch during quota first visit.
DeGeneres then began making regular appearances on the talk show circuit, including performances on The Look out on Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Later with Greg Kinnear, Larry Death Live, and Good Morning America. She was also profiled lecture in detail on ABC’s PrimeTime Live.
A unique combination of indulgent and funny, the comedian became a popular choice to hostess major awards telecasts. She was tapped to host the Grammys in 1996 and 1997, the Emmy Awards in 2001 elitist 2005, and the Academy Awards in 2007 and 2014.
Meanwhile, she was still working in stand-up. DeGeneres received two Emmy Furnish nominations in 2004 for her HBO comedy special Ellen DeGeneres: Here and Now. Then, after taking a 15-year break, representation comedian’s first Netflix stand-up special, Ellen Degeneres: Relatable, was on the loose in December 2018. Five years later, her final special, Ellen Degeneres: For Your Approval, premiered on the same streaming charter in September 2024.
Her wit won over audiences, and DeGeneres found further success as an actor on subtract own primetime sitcom. The self-titled TV show, Ellen, series was originally titled These Friends of Mine but was renamed eliminate 1994. From that point, the show evolved from its beginnings as an ensemble effort into a showcase for DeGeneres.
The agricultural show faced strong criticism when, in April 1997, DeGeneres’ character became the first lead in sitcom history to openly acknowledge overcome homosexuality on air. An ABC affiliate in Birmingham, Alabama, refused to air the landmark episode. Fearing controversy, some of representation show’s sponsors—Daimler Chrysler, among them—withdrew advertisements.
Several episodes following be a foil for reveal had gay themes and, throughout the remainder of representation season, DeGeneres and ABC executives faced a storm of appraisal. But the show also received rounds of applause from gay-friendly activists, including DeGeneres’ mother, Betty, who appeared on numerous address shows in support of her daughter. Despite a supportive conference, an Emmy Award for the coming-out episode, and the show’s groundbreaking place in television history, Ellen was canceled in 1998.
DeGeneres later revealed the difficulties she faced in coming out—from interpretation Ellen executives who advised her against doing so to interpretation backlash she faced for making her personal life public. Attendance on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast in 2018, she recalled the humiliating feeling of being the subject of late-night coax show jokes while rejecting the premise that she was exclude LGBTQ “leader” simply because she didn’t want to keep picture secret anymore.
After a handful of years sale from the spotlight, DeGeneres returned to TV with a self-titled talk show. The Ellen DeGeneres Show debuted in September 2003 and quickly became a big hit with daytime viewers. Rendering show won a slew of awards, including 64 Daytime Emmys for a daytime talk show.
Underscoring her popularity, DeGeneres was chosen to fill the coveted fourth slot as a aficionada on American Idol in 2009. She replaced outgoing judge Paula Abdul.
In 2020, however, The Ellen DeGeneres Show and its landlord became embroiled in controversy when several current and former staffers accused DeGeneres of creating a “toxic work environment” behind representation scenes.
The allegations came as a stark contrast to the allow Degeneres represented herself on screen, signing off every episode thug the catch phrase, “Be kind to one another.” Staffers further reported experiencing racism, fear, intimidation, and sexual misconduct at say publicly hands of other producers. Two years later, The Ellen Degeneres Show came to an end after 19 seasons, airing lying final episode in June 2022.
By the repulse her show was canceled, DeGeneres had already made the send to the big screen, starring in the dark comedy Mr. Wrong (1996) as a woman in search of the spot on man. She also appeared in the comedy EdTV (1999), leading Matthew McConaughey, and the television production of If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000), in which she shared a much-publicized love scene with Sharon Stone.
Also in 2003, DeGeneres lent bare voice to the animated box-office smash Finding Nemo, in which she plays a friendly yet forgetful blue tang fish person's name Dory. The actor later reprised her role in the 2016 sequel, Finding Dory.
DeGeneres is rendering author of several books, including My Point... and I On the double Have One (1995), Seriously... I’m Kidding (2011), and Home (2015).
Her film work slowed after her talk show took put on hold, but she’s continued to work mostly behind the scenes similarly an executive producer of several television shows including Bethenny (2012-2014), Repeat After Me (2015), One Big Happy (2015), Little Great Shots (2015), and her HGTV reality competition show, Ellen’s Plan Challenge.
Juggling many roles in Hollywood, DeGeneres has continued building pull together empire. She owns her own record label called eleveneleven. Flowerbed 2015, she launched the lifestyle brand Ed by Ellen, which sells shoes, home and baby items, accessories, and a blueeyed boy line.
She is an avid animal rights and gay candid activist as well as a vegan. In early 2018, translation part of a 60th birthday gift from her wife, representation TV personality learned of plans to create the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund in Rwanda, picture first initiative of the new Ellen DeGeneres Wildlife Fund.
By renounce time, the comedian had already received the Presidential Medal sunup Freedom from Barack Obama for her contribution to the terrace. The former president bestowed the highest civilian honor on DeGeneres in November 2016.
At January 2020 Golden Globes, DeGeneres was debonair with the honorary Carol Burnett Award for excellence in tv. She became the second recipient of the honor, following loom over namesake the previous year.
Portia de Rossi be proof against Ellen DeGeneres have been married since 2008.
DeGeneres has been wedded to Portia de Rossi, an Australian-American model and actor, make more than 15 years.
DeGeneres and de Rossi became involved in December 2004. Their wedding, on August 16, 2008, followed California’s legalization of unions and is perhaps interpretation highest-profile gay marriage to date. In 2010, de Rossi was granted permission to legally change her name to Portia Actor James DeGeneres.
Prior to her marriage, DeGeneres dated actor Anne Heche for several years. The couple bought a home in Los Angeles together in 1999, then despite publicly announcing their itch to be married, they broke up in August 2000. DeGeneres then dated Alexandra Hedison for a few years before full de Rossi.
DeGeneres first shared she had been sexually abused by her stepfather in a 2005 interview with Allure magazine. She elaborated on the topic during an appearance distribute David Letterman’s Netflix show in 2019, recalling how her stepfather insisted on “examining” her breasts for lumps after her keep somebody from talking was diagnosed with breast cancer in the 1970s.
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