Ellen DeGeneres went to Atlanta high school and spent one semester at University of New Orleans.
Ellen DeGeneres has won awards in her different incarnations. She has won Daytime Emmy awards for best talk show and best show, but earlier in her TV career she starred in the nineties in her own highly successful sitcom Ellen.
In its first season it had been called These Friends of Mine.
Ellen ran from 1994-98.
In 1997, Ellen came out as a lesbian. The April 14 1997 issue of time magazine featured Ellen on the cover with the statement "Yep, I'm gay". Two weeks later her on-screen persona was also declared gay.
From 1997-2000 Ellen DeGeneres went out with Anne Heche.
After The Ellen Show, which only ran for one series, Ellen DeGeneres started presenting her chat show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2003.
Ellen DeGeneres has also hosted the Grammy awards in 1996 and 1997; the Emmy awards in 2001 and 2005, and the Oscars in 2007.
Ellen DeGeneres has been going out with Portia de Rossi since 2004 and in 2008 they got married.
In 2010 Ellen DeGeneres took over from Paula Abdul as a judge on American Idol, however in July 2010 she revealed that she would not return after her first season.
