Ellen Lee DeGeneres is an American stand-up comedian, actress, and currently the Emmy Award-winning host of the syndicated talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
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 Pixar animated hit film
Finding Nemo. She also starred in two television sitcoms,
The Ellen Show from 2001 to 2002 and
Ellen from 1994 to 1998. 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 and the series went on to explore various LGBT issues as well as the "coming out" process.
Ellen is married to
Portia de Rossi.