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Ellen DeGeneres - Professional Achievements
 

Born in 1958, DeGeneres developed her funny bone as a child growing up in Louisiana and Texas. Unlike comedy, scholastic achievement didn't come quite as easy for DeGeneres. She graduated from high school in 1976 and headed back to New Orleans, where she worked a curious string of dead-end jobs. With a résumé like that, it was inevitable that Ellen's observational acumen received rigorous daily workouts. Friends began telling DeGeneres that she was a hoot, which she had known all along, and so she took to the stage at a local coffee house's amateur hour, in 1981. Success there led to a gig as emcee of the nightly act at nearby Clyde's Comedy Club, a job she held for a year, until Clyde went out of business. In 1982, DeGeneres entered and, much to her surprise, won Showtime's Funniest Person in America competition.

The publicity she gained from the cable network's nationwide contest encouraged her to make a break for the big time. She moved to San Francisco— then a hot-bed of comedy clubs—and launched a well-received stand-up career. She had her first appearance on the Tonight show in 1986. Johnny Carson loved her act and invited DeGeneres to take a seat on the show's fabled, career-making couch. She was the first woman comic to receive the invite on a debut Tonight appearance. Having received Carson's stamp of approval, DeGeneres entered the ranks of the stand-up world's elite.

Additional Information
 

From her homebase in Los Angeles, she began touring nationally, and headlined several cable-television specials. She was flooded with TV offers. In 1994 DeGeneres began Ellen, in which her character operates a bookstore and hangs out with her wacky pals. The producers (including DeGeneres) began hinting that Ellen's title character would announce her homosexuality during the sitcom's third season. Finally, after months of much ado, Ellen came out of the closet on a special hour-long episode. DeGeneres preempted the long-awaited coming-out of her character on Ellen by telling Time magazine that she, Ellen DeGeneres, is a lesbian: 'I never wanted to be the lesbian actress. I never wanted to be the spokesperson for the gay community. Ever. I did it for my own truth.'

The widely hyped 'coming out' episode, produced great ratings, an Emmy, and a prestigious Peabody Award. Her film career began with Mr. Wrong (1996). and earned kudos for her performance as a workaholic TV exec in the 1999 Ron Howard-directed comedy EDtv. In 2000, DeGeneres and Sharon Stone co-starred as a long-term monogamous lesbian couple trying to have a baby in a segment of the HBO omnibus If These Walls Could Talk 2 directed and written by Anne Heche.

Today, Ellen shares her charm with America from her own daytime talk shoe, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which premiered in the fall of 2003.

Programs
 

"Speaking Honestly"

Books
 

The Funny This Is

My Point…And I Do Have One