Ellen DeGeneres has become a legend in her own right since she hit the spotlight in the late 1970s — though there have been some bumps along the way.
The talk show host started out as a stand-up comedian in her native Louisiana after leaving the University of New Orleans just one semester into her studies as a communications major. She found moderate success early on, becoming the MC at Clyde’s Comedy Club in 1981 and launching a national tour soon after.
The funnywoman got her big break in 1986 when she performed a stand-up routine on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. More appearances on late-night TV followed, along with club bookings and eventually theater appearances and small TV roles.
DeGeneres landed her first regular small-screen gig as a cast member on the Fox sitcom Open House, which aired from 1989 to 1990. After a brief stint on ABC’s Laurie Hill, which the network canceled after four episodes, DeGeneres scored her own sitcom titled These Friends of Mine and later renamed Ellen.
“I was laughing out loud when I read the script,” she told The New York Times in 1994. “I knew what I could do with it. I wanted to do a smarter, hipper version of I Love Lucy, only don’t take it so far that I’m in a man’s suit with a mustache trying to fool Ricky that I’m not his wife. I wanted a show that everybody talks about the next day.”
And talk they did. During the height of Ellen’s popularity, its star came out as a lesbian — in real life and on the show. ABC canceled the sitcom just a year later as ratings dipped, leaving DeGeneres devastated.
The My Point … and I Do Have One author went public with her relationship with actress Anne Heche shortly after coming out, and she later dated photographer Alexandra Hedison.
DeGeneres returned to TV in 2001 with The Ellen Show, but the CBS sitcom was canceled less than four months after its premiere. Two years later, NBC took a chance on the actress and gave her a daytime talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which is now her most successful venture to date with nearly 3,000 episodes and 60-plus Emmy wins.
The animal rights activist has also found fortune on the big screen as the voice of Dory in the Disney-Pixar animated movies Finding Nemo and Finding Dory. She met The One along the way too, marrying actress and model Portia de Rossi in 2008.
DeGeneres found herself face-to-face with scandal again in 2020, however. Multiple current and former talk show employees came forward with allegations of racism, fear, intimidation and sexual misconduct in the workplace. Executive producers denied behaving inappropriately with staffers, while DeGeneres apologized to those “being looked at differently, or treated unfairly, not equal, or — worse — disregarded.”
Scroll down to see photos of DeGeneres through the years.
The Atlanta High School graduate made her first major stand-up appearance on Johnny Carson’s late-night show in November 1986. He famously compared her to comedy great Bob Newhart.
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DeGeneres landed her first major TV role in August 1989 on Open House. She played Margo Van Meter until the series ended in July 1990.
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The comedian’s ABC sitcom Ellen aired five seasons from March 1994 to July 1998. She portrayed a thirtysomething bookstore owner named Ellen Morgan alongside David Anthony Higgins and Joely Fisher.
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DeGeneres came out as a lesbian in April 1997 on the cover of Time magazine with the headline, “Yep, I’m Gay.” Her Ellen character came out in an episode that aired later that month. Forty-two-million people tuned in to see “The Puppy Episode,” which was used as a code name to keep the plot under wraps.
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The star met her first public girlfriend, Heche, at an Oscar party in early 1997. They quickly fell in love and became the most famous openly gay couple in Hollywood at the time. Their relationship lasted three-and-a-half years, ending in August 2000.
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The Ellen Show premiered on CBS in September 2001 but failed to attract the ratings that Ellen once did. The network canceled it after only 13 episodes, with the final five never making the air.
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When DeGeneres hosted the 53rd Primetime Emmy Awards in November 2011, critics and viewers alike praised her for handling the evening with grace in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
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DeGeneres returned to acting in the Oscar-nominated Finding Nemo, which premiered in May 2003 and is one of the highest-grossing animated films of all time.
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The Ellen DeGeneres Show made its debut in September 2003 with Jennifer Aniston as the first guest. Over time, the host has introduced various games and recurring segments on the syndicated series, in addition to dancing her way through the audience at the top of each episode. It is now one of the longest-running talk shows in U.S. history.
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DeGeneres became the first openly gay Oscar host when she was chosen to lead the 79th Academy Awards in February 2007. She knocked it out of the park and received an Emmy nomination for the gig. She returned as host for the 2014 Oscars.
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After four years together, the humanitarian and de Rossi married in August 2008 at their Beverly Hills home.
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DeGeneres celebrated 1,000 episodes of her talk show in May 2009 with celebrity guests including Justin Timberlake and Paris Hilton.
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The TV personality served as a judge during season 9 of American Idol alongside Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi. She left after one year because she did not feel it was a fit for her.
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While hosting the Oscars in March 2014, DeGeneres made history on Twitter by sharing a selfie she took in the audience with stars including Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. It became the most-retweeted tweet of all time but has since been topped.
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DeGeneres teared up as then-president Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November 2016.
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The LGBTQ pioneer started her own game show, Ellen’s Game of Games, on NBC in December 2017, based on segments from her daytime series.
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DeGeneres’ first stand-up special in 15 years, Ellen DeGeneres: Relatable, premiered on Netflix in December 2018. It was filmed at Benaroya Hall in Seattle that August.
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Kate McKinnon presented DeGeneres with the Carol Burnett Award at the 77th Golden Globe Awards in January 2020 for her many outstanding contributions to the world of TV.
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BuzzFeed News published back-to-back reports in July 2020 detailing long-standing rumors about the allegedly toxic work environment at The Ellen DeGeneres Show. The host apologized in an email to staffers, writing in part, “On day one of our show, I told everyone in our first meeting that The Ellen DeGeneres Show would be a place of happiness — no one would ever raise their voice, and everyone would be treated with respect. Obviously, something changed, and I am disappointed to learn that this has not been the case. And for that, I am sorry.” Warner Bros. subsequently launched an investigation into the series, which resumed filming shortly after the scandal broke.
When season 18 premiered that September, DeGeneres wasted no time addressing what went down. “I know that I am in a position of privilege and power and I realize that with that comes responsibility. And I take responsibility for what happens at my show,” she said.
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The People’s Choice Award winner announced via Twitter in December 2020 that she had tested positive for COVID-19. She returned to her show the following month and told viewers that she was “very fortunate [and] very, very blessed” to have only experienced back pain. “I didn’t lose my sense of taste, although I did wear Crocs with socks for a day, so you be the judge,” she quipped.
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