DeGeneres' stand-up comedy career started in the early 1980s and included a 1986 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

She also launched a lifestyle brand, ED Ellen DeGeneres, which comprises a collection of apparel, accessory, home, baby, and pet items.

The show revolved around DeGeneres's falling asleep and finding herself in an energy-themed version of Jeopardy!, playing against an old rival, portrayed by Curtis, and Albert Einstein.

DeGeneres provided the voice of Dory, a friendly fish with short-term memory loss, in the 2003 animated Disney/Pixar film Finding Nemo.

[24] The film's director, Andrew Stanton, said that he offered the role to DeGeneres because he had seen an episode of her show where she changed the subject five times before one sentence had finished.

DeGeneres's first regular TV role was in a short-lived Fox sitcom called Open House,[26] a spin-off of the show Duet.

In 1992, producers Neal Marlens and Carol Black cast DeGeneres in their sitcom Laurie Hill, in the role of Nurse Nancy MacIntyre.

[29] The series was canceled after only four episodes, but Marlens and Black soon cast her in their next ABC pilot, These Friends of Mine, which they co-created with David S.

[32] The ABC show was popular in its first few seasons due in part to DeGeneres's style of observational humor; it was often referred to as a "female Seinfeld".

Based on games played on her talk show, the series previewed on December 18, 2017, with regular episodes starting the following January.

[57] The New York Times profiled DeGeneres in 2018 as she faced the decision of renewing her talk-show contract and was exploring other outlets for her creativity, including her Netflix comedy special Relatable, which spoofs her kind image.

[59][60] Months earlier, comedian and podcaster Kevin T. Porter published a thread on Twitter in which he called DeGeneres "notoriously one of the meanest people alive", and asked other Twitter users to post "stories you've heard about Ellen being mean", pledging to donate two dollars to the Los Angeles Food Bank for each post.

[61] The thread quickly went viral, with several posts alleging situations where DeGeneres had been unkind (such as for firing people who greeted her or looked her in the eyes).

"[64] Following the investigation, three executives left (Kevin A. Leman II, Ed Glavin, and Jonathon Norman), and the show vowed to take steps to change the culture.

[69] The show aired its final episode on May 26, 2022, with Jennifer Aniston, Pink and Billie Eilish appearing as guests, while Portia de Rossi and other members of DeGeneres's family sat in the audience.

Presented after two cancellations due to network concerns that a lavish ceremony following the September 11 attacks would appear insensitive, the show required a more somber tone that would also allow viewers to temporarily forget the tragedy.

DeGeneres received several standing ovations for her performance that evening, which included the line: "What would bug the Taliban more than seeing a gay woman in a suit surrounded by Jews?

[74] During the Awards show, DeGeneres said, "What a wonderful night, such diversity in the room, in a year when there's been so many negative things said about people's race, religion, and sexual orientation.

"[75] Reviews of her hosting gig were positive, with one saying, "DeGeneres rocked, as she never forgot that she wasn't just there to entertain the Oscar nominees but also to tickle the audience at home.

[84][87][88] On December 3, 2011, DeGeneres headlined the third annual "Change Begins Within" gala for the David Lynch Foundation held at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

[95] In November 2017, the brand launched a collection to benefit DeGeneres's #BeKindToElephants campaign featuring a tee and baby one piece, donating 100% of the proceeds to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.

Her most recent American Express commercial, a two-minute black-and-white spot in which she works with animals, debuted in November 2006 and was created by Ogilvy & Mather.

[120][121][122] A legal petition by de Rossi to change her name to Portia Lee James DeGeneres was granted on September 23, 2010.

[129] In 2016, DeGeneres stated that she had re-introduced fish into her diet,[130] and confirmed that she had stopped following a vegan lifestyle "in the last year or two for no reason really" in her 2018 stand-up comedy special Relatable.

[131] DeGeneres has invited Humane Society of the United States CEO Wayne Pacelle to speak on her show several times about the organization's efforts in animal protection legislation.

[132] In April 2013, she donated $25,000 to stop anti-whistleblower agricultural gag legislation in Tennessee, which would prohibit undercover investigators from recording footage of animal abuse on farms.

[133] In 2010, DeGeneres served as campaign ambassador to Farm Sanctuary's Adopt-A-Turkey Project, asking people to start "a new tradition by adopting a turkey instead of eating one" at Thanksgiving.

[134] In November 2011, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton named DeGeneres a special envoy for Global AIDS Awareness.

[135] On December 3, 2011, DeGeneres opened the show at the David Lynch Foundation's third annual "Change Begins Within" gala at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to raise funds to bring Transcendental Meditation (TM) to at-risk populations suffering from epidemic levels of chronic stress and stress-related disorders.

[138] In January 2018, for DeGeneres's 60th birthday, de Rossi gifted her a permanent gorilla home in Rwanda built in her name for the Digit Fund.