Ellen Lee DeGeneres (born January 26, 1958) 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.

epeated line] len: Kaaaaa!

epeated line] len: Oh... mama!

len: Now before we continue on, is it, do I call you "sir"? ul McCartney: King.

len: What's it like to be you? ul McCartney: Weird, man.

ul McCartney: They were throwing money at us to get off.

Mystery phone guest' calls and Ellen picks up] e Rock: Hello? len: Hi! Madonna? Is that you?

bert Downey Jr.: I play an evil scientist in The Shaggy Dog, and I'm a lot like the character I play. Except I'm not evil. len: Or a scientist. [Audience laughs] bert Downey Jr.: [Closes eyes] This is one of those moments I just need to to stop and recollect my thoughts.

len: [During her stand-up routine] You know how you always expect someone to think the same as you and then your like, really shocked when they don't? Like when it's a cold day and you turn to the person next to you and say, 'Its so cold, aren't you cold?' and then they say 'no.' It's kinda like, 'what, are you a communist?'

eferring to the "Silent Hill" poster] len: She doesn't have a mouth.

len: I'm really glad that high jeans are coming back in fashion, cause you know how all the jeans are low now? And cause, you know, sometimes I have to bend down [Audience laugh] No, but it's really good higher jeans are coming back in fashion. Remember the jeans back in the 80's? That kinda high was good. But any higher and they'd be strapless jeans.

len: Hi, where are you from? dience Member: Orlando, Florida. len: Oh, we were just there. Did you come see us? dience Member: Ah, no. I couldn't. That's why I'm here now. len: Oh, well, that's much more convenient.

nd Puppet: It wouldn't have worked out anyway. len: Why's that? nd Puppet: I was dating a sock. len: Oh nd Puppet: And we never went anywhere. len: Well that's no good. nd Puppet: Yeh, and one day he went into the dryer and never came back.

cardo Chavira: [Speaking of ghosts in his house] I'll try and keep them happy. Maybe I'll bring them flowers. len: Yeh, ghosts like flowers. cardo Chavira: Do you know what kind? len: ...forget-me-nots?

len: Make me dance Tony!

len: [Playing horses or Hippies] They eat grass. dience Member: Hippies. len: No, it's horses. Hippies don't *eat* grass [winks]

len: You know that song that asks, "Why do fools fall in love?"? I think the obvious answer is because they're fools.

len: [Speaking about the Emmy's] You know, winning is not important. It's about how you feel about yourself. And of course, you're gonna feel a whole lot better about yourself if you win.

len: Who needs sleep? I laugh in the face of sleep!

len: Hi, where are you from? and-In DJ: I was born in Sydney, Australia, but I moved here fourteen years ago. len: Oh, well in case no-one has said it yet, welcome to our country!

len: Am I right, ladies?

Emmy-winning talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres was born on January 26, 1958, in Metairie, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans. Her father, insurance salesman Elliot De Generes and her mother Elizabeth, a real-estate agent, were divorced when she was 16 years old. Her mother remarried, and her new husband, salesman Roy Gruessendorf, moved the family (which included Ellen's brother) to Atlanta, Texas. After graduating from Atlanta High School in 1976, Ellen attended the University of New Orleans as a communication major, but she dropped out after one semester. She held a wide variety of jobs until she turned to stand-up comedy, making her bones at small clubs and coffeehouses before working her way up to emcee Clyde's Comedy Club by 1981. Her comedy was described as a distaff version of Bob Newhart. Beginning in the early 1980s, she toured nationally and was named the funniest person in America after winning a competition sponsored by the cable network Showtime. This lead to better gigs, including her first appearance on "Tonight Show, The" (1962) with Johnny Carson (I) in 1986. Though DeGeneres' early forays into series television were not successful (she appeared as a supporting player in two short-lived TV situation comedies in the period 1989-92, "Open House" (1989) and "Laurie Hill" (1992)), she scored a hit headlining her own 1994 sitcom on ABC "These Friends of Mine" (later renamed "Ellen" (1994) after its first season). She made TV history in April 1997 when her character, and DeGeneres herself personally, revealed that she was a lesbian. However, the show was canceled the following season due to declining ratings, after which DeGeneres returned to the stand-up circuit. In 2001, DeGeneres launched a new series, "Ellen Show, The" (2001), on CBS, but it suffered from poor ratings and was canceled. Redemption as a television artiste came in 2003, when DeGeneres' daytime talk show, "Ellen: The Ellen DeGeneres Show" (2003) proved to be both a critical hit and a commercial success. Along with good ratings, the show has won unprecedented kudos from the industry, winning 15 Emmy Awards in its first three seasons on the air and becoming the first talk show in TV history to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show in its first three seasons. DeGeneres has also made a name for herself as a host of awards shows. She hosted the Grammy Awards in 1996 and 1997, as well as the Primetime Emmy Awards in 2001 and 2005. In February 2007, she will have the ultimate TV awards show gig, hosting the Oscars.