The Funny Thing Is...

Ellen DeGeneres (born January 26, 1958, in Metairie, Louisiana) is an American comedian, television host, actress, and author whose books extend the conversational, observational stand-up voice she developed across more than four decades of live performance and broadcast television. DeGeneres began as a stand-up comedian in New Orleans coffee houses in the early 1980s, and her appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" in 1986 — during which she became the first female comedian Carson invited to the guest couch on a debut spot — established her as a national act. Her ABC sitcom "Ellen" (1994–1998) ran for five seasons and became a cultural turning point in 1997 when DeGeneres came out as a lesbian on the cover of "Time" magazine and on the show itself. Following a multi-year career interruption, she rebuilt her television presence with "The Ellen DeGeneres Show", a daytime talk program that aired from 2003 to 2022 and won more than sixty Daytime Emmy Awards. She also voiced the character Dory in Pixar's "Finding Nemo" (2003) and "Finding Dory" (2016). Her books extend the same plainspoken, self-deprecating sensibility. "My Point... And I Do Have One" (1995) collected short comic essays drawn from her early stand-up. "The Funny Thing Is..." (2003) followed during the early years of her talk show and applies the same observational structure to celebrity, dating, fame, and the absurdities of Hollywood production. "Seriously... I'm Kidding" (2011) and "Home" (2015) — the latter a coffee-table book about her interior-design work in Los Angeles — round out her published list. DeGeneres has hosted the Academy Awards twice (2007 and 2014), the Primetime Emmy Awards, and the Grammy Awards. She has been the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2016) and the Carol Burnett Award for lifetime achievement in television.