I wonder who doesn’t like Ellen Degeneres. She is one female whom I admire the most for her outstanding  talent. Shes gone through tough times and I wonder how string a person can be to overcome every obstacle and bounce back again to life again.

Here is her latest video where she is rehearsing for ” Ellen Degeneres Season Premier Show” for Sept 9,2009.

Ellen Lee DeGeneres (born January 26, 1958) is a twelve-time Emmy Award-winning American stand-up comedienne, television hostess and actress. She hosts the award winning syndicated talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and is also a judge on American Idol, having joined the show in its ninth season.

photo credit: Thomas Hawk

Background

DeGeneres was raised in Metairie, Louisiana, the daughter of Betty, a speech therapist, and Elliott DeGeneres, an insurance agent. She has one brother Vance DeGeneres, who is a producer and musician.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show

Her Show is nominated for 11 Daytime Emmy Awards in its first season, winning four, including Best Talk Show. The show has won 25 Emmy Awards in its first three seasons on the air. DeGeneres is known for her dancing and singing with the audience at the beginning of the show and during commercial breaks.

In May 2006, DeGeneres made a surprise appearance at the Tulane University commencement in New Orleans. Following George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton to the podium, she came out in a bathrobe and furry slippers. “They told me everyone would be wearing robes,” she said.

On September 7, 2006, DeGeneres was selected to host the 79th Academy Awards ceremony, which took place on February 25, 2007.This makes her the first openly gay or lesbian person to have hosted the event. During the Awards show DeGeneres said, “What a wonderful night, such diversity in the room, in a year when there’s been so many negative things said about people’s race, religion and sexual orientation. And I want to put this out there: if there weren’t blacks, Jews and gays, there would be no Oscars, or anyone named Oscar, when you think about that.
DeGeneres was nominated for an Emmy Award as host of the Academy Awards broadcast.

American Idol

On September 9, 2009, it was confirmed that DeGeneres would become the fourth judge of the ninth season of American Idol, in replacement of Paula Abdul. Her role will start only after the auditions.DeGeneres also reportedly signed a contract to be a judge on the show for at least five seasons.
Personal life

On the ” Ellen Puppy Episode” she revealed her homosexuality and the ratings for this episode were quite high.

I could not post it here as the video’s  embedding was disabled but you can watch this episode over here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9emoc2rEwM&feature=PlayList&p=5DC2274D98ED3ED2&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=88

DeGeneres was in a relationship (1997-2000) with former Another World actress Anne Heche who went on to marry cameraman Coley Laffoon.From 2001 to 2004, DeGeneres and actress/director/photographer Alexandra Hedison were in a relationship. They appeared on the cover of The Advocate after their separation had already been announced to the media.

Since 2004, DeGeneres has been in a relationship with former Ally McBeal and Arrested Development star Portia de Rossi. After the overturn of the same-sex marriage ban in California, DeGeneres announced on a May 2008 show that she and de Rossi were engaged, and gave de Rossi a three-carat pink diamond ring. They were married on August 16, 2008 at their home, with 19 guests including their respective mothers.The passage of Proposition 8 cast doubt on the legal status of their marriage but a subsequent Supreme Court judgement validated it because it occurred before 4 November 2008.

They live in Beverly Hills, with three dogs and four cats,and both are vegan.

In her book, Love, Ellen, DeGeneres’ mother, Betty DeGeneres, describes being initially shocked when her daughter came out as a lesbian, but has become one of her strongest supporters, an active member of PFLAG and spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign’s Coming Out Project. DeGeneres’ mother is a breast cancer survivor.

In 2007, Forbes estimated DeGeneres’ net worth as US$65 million.

source : wikipedia.org