Ellen was born in Metairie, Louisiana, a town on the outskirts of New Orleans, on January 26, 1958. During her child years, she loved exploring the nearby city. In her own words…
“I rode my bike everywhere. All over campus. All over uptown. You know, people can grow up in New Orleans without realizing how unique a city it is. I remember thinking that it was a really neat place.”
When Ellen was 13 years old, her mother divorced her father and they both moved to Atlanta, Texas where she graduated high school. Upon graduation, Ellen traveled back home to Louisiana where she dabbled in multiple career possibilities, but retail, house painting, and even some time in a law firm didn’t please her. However, she knew she was great at one thing: making people happy. While her mom was going through a painful period of her life, Ellen found relief, for both her mom and herself, in comedy.
At age 23, she chose to explore stand up comedy, starting out by performing for friends, but then it became coffee shops and eventually found herself on stage of comedy clubs. In 1982, one her routines won Ellen the title of “Funniest Person in America” in a Showtime talent Contest.
By 1986, Ellen had her first television debut on The Tonight
Show starring Johnny Carson. This was a huge break for her because the tonight show typically didn’t ask visiting comedians to sit down with Carson on camera, but clearly Ellen had something special.
Ellen became more involved in television. She appeared in a few 90’s sitcoms until “These Friends of Mine,” a show starring Ellen, changed its dynamic and transformed into “Ellen.”
The sitcom, which ran for 5 seasons earned her Emmy nominations and other awards such as the Peabody Award. From the 80’s on Ellen was growing both career wise and as a person. The entertainment industry was a place where Ellen felt she could explore her truest self and in 1997 she would tell the world who that was.