50 Fun Facts About Ellen DeGeneres

Which actor actually took the star-packed selfie that Ellen DeGeneres tweeted while hosting the 2014 Oscars?

Bradley Cooper pressed the shutter, which later raised a copyright puzzle: Ellen licensed the picture to the Associated Press although she had not taken it.

What food did Ellen DeGeneres have delivered to the celebrity audience while she was hosting the 2014 Oscars?

Pizza came from a Southern California chain, and Ellen passed Pharrell's trademark hat around the movie stars to collect a tip for the surprised deliveryman.

Which regal blue tang does Ellen DeGeneres voice in Pixar's Finding Nemo and in its 2016 sequel?

Dory earned Ellen DeGeneres a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress, a prize for an acting performance that is heard but never seen.

Which Arrested Development actress did Ellen DeGeneres marry at their Beverly Hills home in August 2008?

Portia de Rossi married Ellen after California's ban on same-sex marriage was overturned, and a later court ruling kept the wedding valid despite Proposition 8.

Which talk show host played the therapist to whom Ellen's sitcom character came out in The Puppy Episode?

Oprah Winfrey played the therapist in what became one of the highest-rated episodes of Ellen, broadcast shortly after DeGeneres herself came out in real life.

Whom did Ellen DeGeneres replace on the American Idol judging panel for the show's ninth season in 2010?

Paula Abdul had left over unresolved contract talks, and Ellen lasted only one season herself before deciding that judging singers was not the right job for her.

Which actress was the first guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2003 and also appeared on its final episode?

Jennifer Aniston opened the show's run and helped close it in May 2022, and in between she took a turn as its guest host in January 2020.

Ellen DeGeneres's 2014 Oscars selfie broke the retweet record set by which politician's election victory post?

Barack Obama had held the record with a post marking his 2012 re-election, and the selfie overtook it within forty minutes of being sent.

Which magazine put Ellen DeGeneres on its cover in April 1997 when she publicly came out as a lesbian?

Time ran the cover in April 1997, and in 2020 the magazine chose her again as its woman of the year for 1997 in a set of retrospective covers.

Which charades-style phone app, born from a game on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, topped the App Store in 2013?

Heads Up began as a game played with cards held to the forehead on the talk show, and the app passed 650,000 downloads in its first month.

Ellen DeGeneres won national attention in 1986 with a stand-up set on The Tonight Show, then hosted by whom?

Johnny Carson fronted a programme known for launching comedians' careers by putting them before a national audience, and it did the same for her.

In which city near her birthplace of Metairie was Ellen DeGeneres the emcee at Clyde's Comedy Club by 1981?

New Orleans is also where she studied communications at university for a single semester before leaving to do clerical work at a law firm.

In its early seasons the ABC sitcom Ellen was often described as a female version of which observational comedy?

Seinfeld was the comparison because the sitcom leaned on DeGeneres's own observational humor, the stand-up style that had inspired the series in the first place.

Hosting the 2001 Emmys, Ellen DeGeneres wore a copy of the swan dress made famous by which singer?

Björk had worn the original at that year's Oscars, and Ellen's copy appeared at an Emmys ceremony that had been called off twice after the September 11 attacks.

Which national honor did Ellen DeGeneres receive from the president of the United States in 2016?

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the joint-highest civilian award in the United States, and Ellen received hers four years after the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

Which streaming service released Relatable, Ellen DeGeneres's first stand-up special in fifteen years?

Netflix premiered Relatable in December 2018, her first special since Here and Now in 2003, and the hour poked fun at her reputation for kindness.

Sophia Grace and Rosie became regulars on Ellen after their viral cover of which rapper's Super Bass?

Nicki Minaj recorded the hit the girls covered on YouTube in 2011, when they were eight and five, and they went on to interview celebrities over tea on the show.

In Finding Nemo, the blue tang voiced by Ellen DeGeneres struggles throughout with which condition?

Short-term memory loss also drives the 2016 sequel, in which her character sets off across the sea to find the parents she had forgotten.

Beside which former president was Ellen DeGeneres photographed at a 2019 Dallas Cowboys game?

George W. Bush sat with her at a Cowboys game against the Packers, and Ellen answered the critics on her talk show by defending the friendship.

Which actress went viral in 2019 by correcting Ellen DeGeneres on air about an invitation to her birthday party?

Dakota Johnson insisted she had invited the host to her thirtieth, and Ellen's staff confirmed it; the clip passed eight million YouTube views by 2022.

Stephen tWitch Boss, longtime DJ on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, first found fame on which TV contest?

So You Think You Can Dance placed him second in 2008, and he first joined Ellen in April 2014 as a guest DJ before the job became permanent.

To which rural region of England did Ellen DeGeneres and her wife relocate from California in November 2024?

The Cotswolds home was bought before the 2024 presidential election, although the move itself was reported to have been prompted by the result.

Which cosmetics brand made Ellen DeGeneres its advertising face in 2009, her first beauty campaign?

CoverGirl brought her some criticism, because its maker Procter and Gamble tested on animals while Ellen was known for speaking up for animal welfare.

Ellen DeGeneres was the second recipient of a Golden Globes television honor named after which comedian?

Carol Burnett received the first award herself in 2019, and Kate McKinnon presented Ellen with hers at the following ceremony.

In Know or Go, the quiz round on Ellen's Game of Games, what happens to a contestant who answers wrongly?

Dropped through a trapdoor, the loser slides down a chute into a foam pit hidden beneath the stage, while the last player standing goes on to the final round.

The Ellen DeGeneres Campus, opened in Rwanda in 2022, supports the conservation of which endangered animals?

Gorillas have been the cause of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund since Fossey created it in 1978 to pay for anti-poaching patrols, and the campus carries on her work.

Which actress played Susan in The Puppy Episode of Ellen and later said the role cost her over a year's work?

Laura Dern told Ellen in a 2007 interview that she did not work for a year and a half after playing the woman who prompts the coming-out.

Which Finding Nemo director cast Ellen DeGeneres after seeing her change subject five times in one sentence?

Andrew Stanton had first imagined the part as a male character, then changed course after catching an episode of her sitcom on television.

Under which title did the ABC sitcom Ellen run for its first season before being renamed after its star?

These Friends of Mine was changed to avoid confusion with the newly launched NBC series Friends, and the retitled sitcom ran for four more seasons.

In the 1999 comedy EDtv, Ellen DeGeneres plays the creator of a reality show following which actor's character?

Matthew McConaughey plays Ed in Ron Howard's satire, adapted from a 1994 Quebec film about an ordinary man whose life is televised around the clock.

Which actor plays the charming poet who becomes a nightmare boyfriend to Ellen DeGeneres in Mr. Wrong?

Bill Pullman co-starred in a 1996 comedy that critics savaged and audiences skipped, and Ellen herself later joked about what a flop the film had been.

In a ride film shown until 2017, Ellen DeGeneres faced Albert Einstein at Jeopardy! in which theme park?

Epcot opened Ellen's Energy Adventure in 1996, built around her dream of a quiz about energy, with Bill Nye and Alex Trebek also on screen, and closed it in August 2017.

Andy Lassner, whom Ellen DeGeneres sent into haunted houses every Halloween, held which job on her talk show?

Executive producer Andy Lassner held the post from the first episode in 2003 to the last in 2022, and also starred in the recurring segment Average Andy.

Which pop star wrote and recorded Today's the Day as the new theme song for The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2015?

Pink performed the song live during premiere week of the thirteenth season, when the show was being taped in New York City.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show moved in 2008 to a soundstage on the Warner Bros. lot in which California city?

Burbank had been its home from the start, at NBC Studios, and the Warner soundstage was named The Ellen Stage to mark the 2,000th show in 2015.

Why did Ellen DeGeneres host her talk show from a hospital bed in May 2007, with guests in beds too?

A torn back ligament had put her on bed rest, so a nurse tended to her on air while the day's guests were interviewed from hospital beds of their own.

What did Ellen DeGeneres wear for her surprise appearance at Tulane University's 2006 commencement?

A bathrobe and slippers were her joke about academic dress: she followed two former presidents to the podium and said she had been told everyone would be in robes.

Which boy, viral for covering Lady Gaga's Paparazzi, was the first act on Ellen DeGeneres's record label?

Greyson Chance joined eleveneleven in 2010, a label Ellen named partly after the 11:11 she kept noticing whenever she looked at her clocks.

Which cable network named Ellen DeGeneres the funniest person in America early in her touring career?

Showtime gave her the title only a few years after she had started out performing stand-up in small clubs and coffee houses.

Ellen DeGeneres was raised in which religious movement, founded in New England by Mary Baker Eddy in 1879?

Christian Science shaped her childhood home, and she has linked that upbringing to a fearful father who could not engage with anything unpleasant.

Which department store, an early employer of Ellen DeGeneres, hired her as its spokesperson in 2012?

JCPenney had given her one of her first jobs, in a run of early work that also included waitressing at TGI Fridays and painting houses.

Which animal rights group named Ellen DeGeneres its Woman of the Year in 2009, during her years as a vegan?

PETA honoured her in 2009, and she went on to promote meat-free Mondays on her show's website before saying in 2018 that she had stopped being vegan.

In 2011 the US Secretary of State named Ellen DeGeneres a special envoy for awareness of which disease?

AIDS awareness was the brief, and the announcement pointed to what Ellen could bring: a large television audience and more than eight million Twitter followers.

Which 2024 stand-up special did Ellen DeGeneres present as her final outing as a comedian?

For Your Approval was recorded in Minneapolis in August 2024 and spends much of its hour on her life after the talk show ended.

Which comedian co-created Little Big Shots with Ellen DeGeneres and hosted its first three seasons?

Steve Harvey fronted the children's talent showcase from its 2016 premiere on NBC, before Melissa McCarthy took over as host for the fourth season.

Which Fox series began as a spoof segment on The Ellen DeGeneres Show before premiering in December 2020?

The Masked Dancer started as Ellen's parody of The Masked Singer, and a Fox boss rang her team about a real series the day after the first sketch aired.

Whose talk show did NBC-owned stations move into the slot vacated by The Ellen DeGeneres Show in autumn 2022?

The Kelly Clarkson Show was among the programmes that filled the gap from September 2022, after a summer of guest hosts, clip shows and repeats.

Which outlet published the 2020 report in which ten former Ellen DeGeneres Show staff alleged a toxic workplace?

BuzzFeed News carried the anonymous accounts, and the internal investigation that followed ended with three senior figures leaving the show.

What is the top prize in Hot Hands, the final round of Ellen's Game of Games on NBC?

$100,000 went to a finalist who could identify the faces of ten celebrities in thirty seconds, with smaller sums for getting part of the way.

What is the punning name of the Los Angeles shop where Ellen Morgan works in the first season of Ellen?

Buy the Book employs her in the first season, and in the second she purchases the shop from her boss and becomes its owner.