Ellen DeGeneres

Ellen Lee DeGeneres was born January 26, 1958, in Metairie, Louisiana, and began performing stand‑up comedy in New Orleans and on the national circuit in the early 1980s; her first major TV break came with an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1986, which helped launch her national career. She built a reputation for observational, quirky humor that translated into appearances on sitcoms and specials throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s. DeGeneres starred in the ABC sitcom These Friends of Mine (later retitled Ellen) beginning in 1994; in 1997 both she and her sitcom character publicly came out as gay, a high‑visibility moment in U.S. television history that made her a prominent LGBTQ+ figure but preceded a period of professional pushback and the eventual end of the sitcom in 1998. After returning to stand‑up and occasional TV projects, DeGeneres launched The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2003, which became a long‑running daytime success known for celebrity interviews, human‑interest stories, games and giveaways; the program won numerous Daytime Emmy Awards and established DeGeneres as one of daytime TV’s most influential personalities until the show ended its syndicated run in 2022. Beyond television, DeGeneres has acted in films, voiced characters in major animated features (most notably Dory in Finding Nemo and Finding Dory), produced TV series (including Ellen’s Game of Games and Little Big Shots), founded the record label eleveneleven and lifestyle brand ED by Ellen, and engaged in philanthropy and advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights and other causes; she has received honors such as the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.