Ellen+Degeneres,+A+True+Role+Model

[|Ellen Degeneres and Portia De Rossi]

Ellen Lee Degeneres was born January 26th, 1958 in Metairie, Louisiana. Her father was a salesmen, her mother's job is unknown, and her brother, Vance, is an actor and part of a band called Cowboy Mouth. Her parents divorced when she was very young. Ellen graduated from Atlanta High school in May of 1976. She attended the University of New Orleans, where she majored in communications. Some of her previous jobs include a waitress at TGI Fridays, hostess, bartender, and part time dancer. Ellen also did stand up acts in New Orleans and got her first appearance on the Tonight Show in 1986.

Ellen had many TV sitcoms before, including her first, Open House. Later she was on Laurie Hill. She got public attention when her character on her 90's sitcom Ellen was caught sleeping with another woman. In 1997, Ellen made it clear that she was a lesbian when she came out on Oprah. After that, Ellen was canceled and she went back to stand up. Ellen later came back in 2001 with her sitcom, The Ellen Show. It was not a success though. It lasted only one season. On November 4th, 2001, she was the hostess of the Emmy Awards. Many celebrities did not show up because a couple months before, the 9/11 attack happened. Even through the fear and sorrow, she added some light on the subject. [|Ellen] coming out on //Time// magazine.

In September 2003, Ellen started her own talk show. It was called The Ellen DeGeneres Show. It won four awards including best talk show. Ellen is very well known for her dancing to the music her DJ plays, singing with the audience, and especially helping out during Hurricane Katrina. On September 7th, 2006, she was chosen to host the 79th academy awards. Ellen became the first lesbian to host the awards. One interesting fact is the Ellen as also been in a Disney movie. She played the voice of Dory, the short-term memory loss fish in the movie //Finding Nemo//. [|Ellen] dancing on her talk show.

([|Ellen DeGeneres])

=Bibliography-= http://www.about.com/ http://www.ck-blog.com/cks_blog/2007/05/accessible_in_b.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_DeGeneres http://www.tvacres.com/dance_ellen.htm

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