ACTOR · BORN 1958
Ellen DeGeneres
- Born
- 26 January 1958, Metairie, Louisiana, USA
- Known for
- Finding Nemo (2003), Finding Dory (2016), The Big Bang Theory (2007), The Simpsons (1989)
55 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
All facts (55)
- #001
Ellen DeGeneres is the second woman to host the Oscars solo. The first was Whoopi Goldberg.
- #002
Before she was discovered, Ellen DeGeneres sold vacuum cleaners.
- #003
Ellen DeGeneres lived in the apartment used in Annabelle (2014). While promoting the film on her show, she explained: "The apartment in the movie was the first apartment I moved into in Los Angeles. This was the building I lived in; they shot the movie there. I was watching it like, 'That looks familiar,' and it was my building. It was scary back then too."
- #004
Ellen DeGeneres quit smoking using the Allen Carr method (also known as Easyway). She had been a long-time smoker and had struggled to quit.
- #005
Ellen DeGeneres and her girlfriend Portia de Rossi married on August 16, 2008, at Ellen's home in Beverly Hills, California.
- #006
Before becoming a comedian, Ellen DeGeneres worked as a paralegal.
- #007
On September 4, 2012, Ellen DeGeneres was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television at 6270 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California. Fellow Walk of Fame members Jimmy Kimmel and Ryan Seacrest were guest speakers at the ceremony.
- #008
Ellen DeGeneres is of Cajun/French, English, Irish, German and, more distantly, Dutch and Swiss-German descent. Her surname is French.
- #009
Ellen DeGeneres is an animal advocate and co-owner of Halo.
- #010
After her sitcom Ellen (1994) was canceled, Ellen DeGeneres was out of work for three years because no one would book her after she came out. She was nearly broke until Andrew Stanton offered her the role of Dory, the blue tang fish with memory problems, in Finding Nemo (2003) — a role many felt stole the film.
- #011
Ellen DeGeneres was named "Funniest Person in America" in 1982.
- #012
When Ellen DeGeneres appeared on the cover of Time magazine on April 14, 1997, readers voted it the magazine's best cover ever.
- #013
When Ellen DeGeneres appeared as the first guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962), she was the first female stand-up guest to be called to the "hot seat."
- #014
Ellen DeGeneres has written two books: "My Point… And I Do Have One," which was a New York Times bestseller for six months, and "The Funny Thing Is…," also a New York Times bestseller.
- #015
Ellen DeGeneres is good friends with Diane Keaton, Phil McGraw, Oprah Winfrey, Steve Harvey, Kris Jenner, Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Pamela Anderson, Kristin Chenoweth, Justin Timberlake and Katy Perry.
- #016
Ellen DeGeneres was initially reluctant to do a love scene with Sharon Stone in If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000), but her then-girlfriend Anne Heche, who directed that particular segment of the film, encouraged her to do it. Ellen eventually gave in.
- #017
Ellen DeGeneres won the 2012 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, awarded by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
- #018
Ellen DeGeneres was named "Entertainer of the Year" by Entertainment Weekly in its December 26, 1997/January 2, 1998 issue, number 411/412.
- #019
As of June 2017, Ellen DeGeneres is the only woman to have hosted both the Emmy Awards and the Academy Awards.
- #020
Ellen DeGeneres has two dogs named Bootsie and Muffin.
- #021
Ellen DeGeneres won the American Comedy Award for "Funniest Female Stand-Up Comic" in 1991.
- #022
Ellen DeGeneres and her girlfriend Anne Heche separated on August 16, 2000. The two were introduced by writer Roger Friedman and actor Vince Vaughn on March 24, 1997, at a "Vanity Fair" party at Morton's restaurant. DeGeneres began her relationship with Heche, a red carpet official, just 16 days after they met. Before Heche, she had never gone public with any girlfriend.
- #023
Ellen DeGeneres's surname is pronounced "duh-generous."
- #024
Ellen DeGeneres delivered the commencement address at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana.
- #025
Ellen DeGeneres is the younger sister of Vance DeGeneres.
- #026
On November 22, 2016, at a live televised ceremony in the East Room of the White House, Ellen DeGeneres was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, by President Barack Obama along with 20 other recipients; it was the largest and final Medal of Freedom ceremony of Obama's presidency. The 21 recipients, in alphabetical order, were: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Elouise Cobell (awarded posthumously to her son), Ellen DeGeneres, Robert De Niro, Richard Garwin, Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, Frank Gehry, Margaret Hamilton (as Margaret H. Hamilton), Tom Hanks, Rear Admiral Grace Hopper (awarded posthumously to her niece), Michael Jordan, Maya Lin, Lorne Michaels, Newton Minow, Eduardo Padron (as Eduardo Padrón), Robert Redford, Diana Ross, Vin Scully, Bruce Springsteen and Cicely Tyson.
- #027
Ellen DeGeneres's first major league baseball game was played at Target Field in Minnesota, the home of the Minnesota Twins. She answered two questions about Joe Mauer correctly and received a Minnesota Twins Joe Mauer jersey.
- #028
Ellen DeGeneres earns an annual salary of 75 million dollars for The Ellen DeGeneres Show (2003).
- #029
Ellen DeGeneres is the sweetheart of the Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity.
- #030
Ellen DeGeneres was sued by record companies over the free licensing of songs played on her talk show, but the lawsuit was settled quickly.
- #031
Ellen DeGeneres is Madonna's 11th cousin.
- #032
Ellen DeGeneres was the only female comedian ever invited to sit with Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962).
- #033
Ellen DeGeneres worked as a bartender and hostess in a restaurant.
- #034
Contrary to the urban legend, Ellen DeGeneres never auditioned for the role of Phoebe Buffay on Friends (1994) and never turned down the offer.
- #035
Ellen DeGeneres always sets her watch to Mountain Standard Time.
- #036
Ellen DeGeneres spoke at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She pointed out that many film plots and visuals in Hollywood are "heterosexist," meaning that producers allow heterosexual characters to dominate the screen. She wants to see actors and actresses portray more gay and lesbian couples.
- #037
Ellen DeGeneres is the daughter of Betty DeGeneres.
- #038
Ellen DeGeneres has a production company called A Very Good Production.
- #039
Ellen DeGeneres worked as a waitress at TGI Fridays and as a floor attendant at JCPenney.
- #040
She graduated from Atlanta High School in Atlanta, Texas, in 1976.
- #041
She is a 14th cousin of Kate Middleton, twice removed.
- #042
Ellen was raised as a Christian Scientist until she was 13, when her parents divorced. When her mother remarried, they adopted her new husband's beliefs.
- #043
She ended her four-year relationship with photographer-director Alexandra Hedison.
- #044
In 2010, Ellen founded the TV production company A Very Good Production along with the record label eleveneleven. Its first signed artist was Greyson Chance, the youthful sensation who generated great excitement on YouTube. The company's name came from Ellen frequently seeing 11:11 on digital clocks, her chance discovery of the singer on the 11th of the month, and her football jersey number being 11. Ellen's name also contains two lowercase L's side by side that resemble the number 11.
- #045
Her net worth is 345 million dollars.
- #046
Her first celebrity crush was Michael Jackson (the King of Pop).
- #047
PETA named her Woman of the Year in 2009.
- #048
She later dropped out of the University of New Orleans.
- #049
She was impersonated by comedian Nicole Parker on Mad TV (1995).
- #050
She had appeared on the covers of tabloid magazines years before she officially came out, so it was not really a big surprise.
- #051
There is an "Ellen" ride at Epcot Center.
- #052
Times: Most Powerful and Inspiring Women of the Last Century #4 (1997).
- #053
In the late 1990s, she and Brad Pitt wore very similar hairstyles.
- #054
She is a big fan of both the New Orleans Saints in the NFL and the New Orleans Pelicans in the NBA.
- #055
She is no longer vegan, a diet she adopted in 2008. In 2019, she would tell people she was vegan "as a joke." Although urban legend describes her as "vegan," Ellen consumes eggs, dairy, fish and occasionally meat.
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