Ellen Lee DeGeneres is an American television host, actress, and comedienne. She was born on January 26, 1958 in Metairie, Louisiana. Her parents were Elizabeth Jane DeGeneres and Elliott Everett DeGeneres. She has French, English, German, as well as Irish roots. She graduated in Atlanta High School in May 1976. She majored Communication Studies in University of New Orleans. However, DeGeneres did not finish her school because she started to work in a law firm. She had various working experiences at her early age. She became a waitress, house painter, hostess, and bartender.

DeGeneres worked as a stand-up comedienne in year 1981 when she became the emcee at Clyde’s Comedy Club in New Orleans. Her main influences are Woody Allen and Steve Martin. She was named by Showtime as the “Funniest Person in America” in 1982. DeGeneres also appeared in television via “Open House” and in the film “Coneheads”.

Her television career began to bloom in the sitcom “Ellen” (These Friends of Mine) in year 1994-1998. The show became a success in the contribution of DeGeneres’ humor. She gained more popularity when she admitted in “The Oprah Winfrey Show” when she revealed her homosexuality in 1997.

DeGeneres was popularly known as the host of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show”. It started on September 8, 2003 which was produced by Telepictures. The show gained so much popularity because of its consistent high ratings. It was nominated for 11 Daytime Emmy Awards during its first season. The show won four awards including Best Talk Show. It also gained 25 Emmy Awards during its three seasons. On May 1, 2009, the show celebrated its 1000th episode including guests Oprah, Paris Hilton, Justin Timberlake.

Ellen owns a record label named “eleveneleven”. It was announced on her show on May 26, 2010. She explained that she come up with this name because she always sees this number. Artists who are under her record label were Greyson Chance, Tom Andrews and Jessica Simpson.

DeGeneres is open for her relationships with the same sex. She had a romantic relationship with actress Anne Heche from the year 1997-2000. She also had relationship with the actress, photographer, director Alexandra Hedison from the year 2001-2004. After their breakup, DeGeneres became related to Portia De Rossi. She announced on May 2008 that she and Rossi were officially engaged. She stated that she gave de Rossi a three-karat pink diamond ring. On August 16, 2008, they were married in their residence having only nineteen guests. The couple lived in Beverly Hills. Portia de Rossi filed a petition for the change of her name into Portia Lee James DeGeneres on August 6, 2010 and was granted on September 23, 2010.

Bette DeGeneres (Ellen’s mother) stated that she was shocked when her daughter admitted that she was a lesbian. However, she was one of the people who support her daughter as evidenced by her support to Parents & Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) as well as being the spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign’s Coming Out Project.

On September 9, 2009, she was announced to be the judge in the American reality show “American Idol Season 9” as the replacement to Paula Abdul. She made her debut in the show on February 9, 2010. However, she also departed in the show as announced by the Fox executives and DeGeneres on July 29, 2010.

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Ellen DeGeneres is now working for the U.S. government.  Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres has been named Special Envoy for Global Aids Awareness by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton who tapped the comedian’s celebrity in the ongoing fight against AIDS.  Clinton said that DeGeneres, who hosts the popular daytime talk show “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” will use her high profile to raise awareness of the disease and give hope to AIDS sufferers.

Clinton said in a statement that the enormous platform of her television show and her social media channels would enable her to reach millions of people with the strong and hopeful message that all can win this fight.  Besides her Emmy-award winning television show, DeGeneres boasts an estimated 8 million Twitter followers and nearly 6 million Facebook fans.  Clinton said that Ellen is going to bring not only her sharp with and her big heart but also her impressive TV audience and more than 8 million Twitter followers to raise awareness and support for this effort.  She added that she know that we can look forward to many contributions from Ellen and her loyal fans across the globe.

DeGeneres said she was honored by the appointment.  She tweeted that she could not be more honored to be named the Special Envoy for Global AIDS Awareness by Secretary Clinton adding that together, people can see the end of AIDS.  According to DeGeneres, the fight against AIDS is something that has always been close to her heart and she is happy that she can use her platform to educate people and spread hope.

In one of her trademark self-deprecating quips, she added that she would now excuse herself of the crowd because she has to go look up what envoy means.  One of the first nationally known celebrities to come out as a lesbian, when she was still starring on her network sitcom, DeGeneres has worked on behalf of many humanitarian causes including anti-bullying, animal rescue and rehabilitation and breast cancer awareness.  DeGeneres said on Twitter that an AIDS-free generation would be one of the greatest gifts people could give to the collective future.

Ambassador Eric Goosby, head of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), said that he was thrilled that they have someone like Ellen DeGeneres on their team to raise awareness that we are on the path to beating this devastating disease.

Clinton called for dramatic reductions in mother-to-child transmissions by 2015 and said that we can get that number to zero.  The Obama Administration announced the appointment along with $60 million of additional funding to fight the spread of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa according to The Hollywood Reporter.  Clinton said that the money would help scale up and assess new prevention strategies.  She said Tuesday that more effective prevention methods were driving infections down, making it possible to treat more people.  She said that is allowing health campaigners for the first time to get ahead of the pandemic and make progress toward establishing an AIDS-free generation.