Wizz Air

IATA W6 ICAO WZZ Callsign WIZZ AIR
Founded	2003
Operating bases	Belgrade Bucharest-Otopeni Budapest (HQ) Cluj-Napoca Gdańsk Katowice (Largest base) Kyiv Poznań Prague Sofia Târgu Mureş Timişoara Vilnius Warsaw-Chopin [ends 17 July] Warsaw-Modlin [begins 18 July] Wrocław
Subsidiaries	Wizz Air Serbia Wizz Air Ukraine
Fleet size	36 (+ 121 orders)
Destinations	66
Company slogan	We can all fly now
Headquarters	Budapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport Budapest, Hungary
Key people	József Váradi (CEO) Christopher Collins (COO)
Website	www.wizzair.com/

Wizz Air Hungary Airlines Ltd. (Hungarian: Wizz Air Hungary Légiközlekedési Kft.) is a Hungarian^[1][2] low-cost airline with its head office on the property of Budapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport in Budapest. The airline typically uses secondary airports serving many cities across Europe. The airline is also the unofficial flag carrier.

History[link]

The airline was established in September 2003. The lead investor is Indigo Partners, an American private equity firm^[3] specialising in transportation investments. The first flight was made on 19 May 2004 from Katowice, 19 days after Poland and Hungary entered the European Union and the single European aviation market. The airline carried 250,000 passengers in its first three and a half months, almost 1.4 million passengers in the first year of operations and to date, 10 million passengers. In 2007 Wizz Air carried 2.9 million passengers on its Polish routes. Since the bankruptcy of Malev Hungarian Airlines on the 3rd of February 2012, Wizz Air can be considered as being the flag carrier of Hungary.

The airline's CEO and chairman is József Váradi, former CEO of Malév Hungarian Airlines. The company is registered in Pest County (Hungary)^[4] with operating subsidiaries in Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria. Wizz Air Bulgaria was established in September 2005.^[5]

József Váradi, Chief Executive Officer of Wizz Air, won the Ernst & Young award of the 'Brave Innovator' in 2007. The prize recognised the break through in the airline business in Hungary and the region, the business model and the business conduct of Wizz Air.^{[citation needed]}

In summer 2008 Wizz Air became the first low cost carrier in Ukraine.^{[citation needed]}

In 2011 Wizz Air carried 11 million passengers (15% more than in 2010), in this 4.2 million passengers on Polish routes (it´s only 2% more than in 2010). In recent years Wizz stopped developing its network of connections from Poland and opened new bases in Romania, Lithuania and Serbia, however Poland is still the largest capital market for Wizz Air.^[6]

Corporate affairs[link]

Gate A at Budapest Airport leads to the Wizz Air head office

Wizz Air Airbus A320-200 in the ramp Katowice International Airport, Poland

Head office[link]

Wizz Air has its head office in Building 221 of Budapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport in Budapest.^[7] Wizz Air signed the lease agreement in October 2010 and moved there with 150 employees in June 2011. The airline occupies over 2,000 square metres (22,000 sq ft) of space in an office building refurbished after the airline's arrival. The facility, with open plan offices, houses about 150 employees.^[8] Previously its head office was in the Airport Business Park C2 in Vecsés, close to the airport.^[9]

Financial Performance[link]

While attempting to hasten SkyEurope's demise in June 2009, Wizz Air claimed it had been "profitable for several years".^[10] However, as a private company it is not required to publish its financial accounts. In November 2009, it emerged Wizz Air is significantly loss-making and has never made a profit while delaying the pay-back of €32 million of debt by five years.^[11] Losses since commencing operations total €78 million, which has fueled suggestions that the airline may file for bankruptcy.^[12]

According to Hungarian weekly magazine Figyelő, Wizz Air ranks 42nd company in Hungary in terms of revenues in 2010. Wizz Air posted sales of HUF165 billion in 2010, which is an increase of 22% compared to the previous year.^[13]

Destinations[link]

Bulgarian-registered Airbus A320-200 takes off from London Luton Airport

Wizz Air prefers to land at smaller or secondary airports to reduce costs and fees.

Wizz Air started new services between Katowice and London Gatwick in 2008.^[14] Winter destinations from Warsaw are Milan Bergamo and Grenoble. In January 2008, flights started from Gdansk to Goteborg, Bournemouth and Coventry.

In summer 2008, Wizz Air restarted the summer only services from Katowice and Budapest to Girona, as well as a new weekly service to Girona from Gdańsk. Other summer services from Budapest are Heraklion, Corfu, Burgas and Varna, from Katowice to Crete-Heraklion and Burgas, Warsaw to Corfu and Burgas. They also restarted the three-times weekly service from London Luton to Burgas.

On 2 October 2008, Wizz Air announced that a number of their Romania services would have increased frequency following an order for three Airbus A320 aircraft.^[15] Services began 15 February 2009 from Timisoara, on 1 March 2009 from Bucharest, and 1 May 2009 from Cluj-Napoca.

In February 2012, Wizz Air announced it will start flights from Debrecen to London, beginning June 18, 2012.^[16]

Wizz Air Serbia

• The Serbian division of Wizz Air has 1 international base at Belgrade.

Wizz Air Ukraine

• The Ukrainian division of Wizz Air has 1 international base at Kiev.

Service[link]

According to customer reviews, Wizz Air is a 2 star airline, making it comparable to airlines like Ryanair and bmibaby.^[17][18] Calls to the customer service department cost 0.75 GBP per minute, according to Wizz Air's own homepage,^[19] and controversially Wizz Air also maintains that it takes up to 30 days to process customer complaint emails.^[19]

In-flight services[link]

Wizz Air has a buy on board service called Wizz Café and a shopping service called Wizz Boutique. For both services, the base price is in euros. All flights also accept pound sterling notes as tender, while pound sterling coins are not accepted. Flights with Hungary as the origin or destination also accept forints. Flights with Poland as the origin or destination accept złoty. The prices in pounds, forints, and złoty are conversions of the original euro prices. Wizz Air flights also accept EuroCard, MasterCard and Visa credit cards.^[20]

Fleet[link]

Wizz Air - Airbus A320 Cabin

The Wizz Air fleet consists of the following aircraft with an average fleet age of 3.4 years (as of 21 April 2012):^[21]

Notes

• ^1 : 2 Airbus A320 operate for Wizz Air Ukraine, 1 also operates for Wizz Air Serbia.

Criticism[link]

Wizz Air has taken a fair amount of criticism since its inception over its quality of service and allegedly poor customer support. On August 17, 2009 they filed an official complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization over the domain Wizzairsucks.com which surfaced a few months earlier by a group of disgruntled customers.^[22] Despite the efforts of Wizz Air and their legal team citing trademark infringement over the disputed domain, the case was decided in favour of the respondent(s) and the site remains.^[23] On December 22, 2009 they were embroiled in a controversy over a story that circulated from Travel.ru ^[24] claiming they used police dogs and tear gas to forcibly remove several passengers from a cancelled flight scheduled from London to Kiev. This was contested by Wizz Air claiming it was a PR attack perpetrated by angry customers of the flight. They released a police report corroborating their version of events which clearly made no mention of either tear gas or dogs being involved in the ordeal.^[25] However the story quickly circulated over the internet by disgruntled customers causing a PR problem. According to the website wizzairsucks.com the airline does not respect passengers rights and often ignores European law, in particular Regulation (EC) 261/2004.

See also[link]

• Transport in Hungary

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Wizz Air

	Budapest portal
	Hungary portal
	Aviation portal
	Companies portal

• Official website (English)

v t e Airlines of Hungary ABC Air Hungary Aviaexpress CityLine Hungary Budapest Aircraft Service Farnair Hungary Malév Travel Service Wizz Air

Look up kid, kids, or kidding in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Kid(s) may refer to

• Young goats, or leather made from their hides
  • Goat meat from young goats
• Child
• Kidding, or joking

Fictional characters[link]

• Kid (Chrono Cross), in the PlayStation role-playing game Chrono Cross
• Kid, character driving plot in Jak II video game
• Death the Kid, commonly referred to as Kid, in the manga Soul Eater

Organizations[link]

• Kids (charity), in the UK
• Kids In Danger, an American consumer advocacy group focused on children's product safety
• Kids In Distressed Situations, an international children's charity

People[link]

• Kid Berg (1909–91; Judah Bergman), English boxer
• Kid Cudi (born 1984; Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi), American rapper
• Kid Kaplan (1901–70; Louis Kaplan), Russian-born American boxer
• Kid Lewis (1893-70; Gershon Mendeloff), English boxer
• Kid Murphy (1899–1945; Jack Bernstein), American boxer
• Kid Rock (born 1971; Robert James Ritchie), American singer
• Christopher "Kid" Reid (born 1964), American actor and former rapper
• Billy the Kid, American wild west outlaw

Popular culture[link]

• K.I.D., an Italo disco project by Geoff Bastow
• Kids (film), a 1995 American drama film directed by Larry Clark
• "Kids" (MGMT song)
• "Kids" (Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue song)
• K.I.D.S. (EP), an EP by Tiny Masters of Today
• K.I.D.S (Kickin' Incredibly Dope Shit), a mixtape by Mac Miller
• Kids: Live at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, an album by Joe Lovano and Hank Jones
• "Kid", a song by Green Apple Quick Step
• "Kid", a song by The Pretenders from Pretenders
• "Kids", a song from the 1960 musical Bye Bye Birdie and the 1963 film adaptation

Radio[link]

• KID (AM), in Idaho Falls, Idaho, U.S.
• KID-FM, in Idaho Falls, Idaho, U.S.
• KIDS (FM) (88.1 FM), a radio station licensed to Grants, New Mexico, U.S.

Science and technology[link]

• Kinetic inductance detector, a type of superconducting photon detector
• Kid (templating language), a template engine for XML-based vocabularies written in Python
• KID (Kindle Imagine Develop), a Japanese game company
• KIDS (disease), Koala Immune Deficiency Syndrome
• .kid and .kids, Proposed top-level domains for websites intended for children
• KID, a portion of a p300/CBP-related protein

Other uses[link]

• King's Indian Defence, in chess
• Kidderminster railway station in England (National Rail station code)
• Kristianstad Airport, Sweden (IATA code)

See also[link]

• "Chad Gadya" ("One Kid"), an Aramaic/Hebrew song
• The Kid (disambiguation)
• Kidd (disambiguation)
• Kidz (disambiguation)
• Kydd, a novel by Julian Stockwin

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Ellen DeGeneres
Ellen DeGeneres, Los Angeles, October 4, 2011
Birth name	Ellen Lee DeGeneres
Born	(1958-01-26) January 26, 1958 (age 54) Metairie, Louisiana, United States
Medium	Stand-up, television, film, books
Nationality	American
Years active	1981 – present
Influences	Steve Martin,[1] Woody Allen,[1] Bob Newhart,[1] Johnny Carson
Spouse	Portia de Rossi (2008–present)
Domestic partner(s)	Anne Heche (1997–2000) Alexandra Hedison (2001–2004)
Emmy Awards
Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series 1997 Ellen Outstanding Talk Show 2004 The Ellen DeGeneres Show 2005 The Ellen DeGeneres Show 2006 The Ellen DeGeneres Show 2007 The Ellen DeGeneres Show Outstanding Talk Show Entertainment 2010 The Ellen Degeneres Show 2011 The Ellen Degeneres Show Outstanding Special Class Writing 2005 The Ellen DeGeneres Show 2006 The Ellen DeGeneres Show 2007 The Ellen DeGeneres Show Outstanding Talk Show Host 2005 The Ellen DeGeneres Show 2006 The Ellen DeGeneres Show 2007 The Ellen DeGeneres Show 2008 The Ellen DeGeneres Show
American Comedy Awards
Funniest Female Stand-Up Comic 1991 Funniest Female Performer in a TV Special 1994 46th Primetime Emmy Awards 2000 Ellen DeGeneres: The Beginning
Saturn Award
Best Supporting Actress (film) 2003 Finding Nemo
Teen Choice Awards
Best Comedian 2011

Ellen Lee DeGeneres ( /dɨˈdʒɛnərəs/; born January 26, 1958) is an American stand-up comedian, television host and actress. She hosts the syndicated talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

DeGeneres has hosted both the Academy Awards and the Primetime Emmys. As a film actress, she starred in Mr. Wrong, appeared in EDtv and The Love Letter, and provided the voice of Dory in the Disney-Pixar animated film Finding Nemo, for which she was awarded a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress, the first and only time a voice performance won a Saturn Award. She was a judge on American Idol for one year, having joined the show in its ninth season. She also starred in two television sitcoms, Ellen from 1994 to 1998 and The Ellen Show from 2001 to 2002. During the fourth season of Ellen in 1997, DeGeneres came out publicly as a lesbian in an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Shortly afterwards, her character Ellen Morgan also came out to a therapist played by Winfrey, and the series went on to explore various LGBT issues including the coming out process. She has won thirteen Emmys and numerous other awards for her work and charitable efforts.

In November 2011, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton named her a Special Envoy for Global AIDS Awareness.^[2]

Early life and education[link]

DeGeneres was raised in Metairie, Louisiana, the daughter of Elizabeth Jane DeGeneres (née Pfeffer), a speech therapist, and Elliott Everett DeGeneres, an insurance agent.^[3][4] She has one brother, Vance DeGeneres, who is a producer and musician. She is of French, English, German and Irish descent. DeGeneres was raised as a Christian Scientist until the age of thirteen. In 1973, DeGeneres's parents filed for separation and were divorced the following year. Shortly after, Betty Jane remarried Roy Gruessendorf, who worked as a salesman. Betty Jane and Ellen moved with Gruessendorf from the New Orleans area to Atlanta, Texas. Vance stayed with their birth father.

DeGeneres graduated from Atlanta High School in May 1976, after completing her first years of high school at Grace King High School in Metairie, Louisiana. She moved back to New Orleans to attend the University of New Orleans, where she majored in communication studies. After one semester, she left school to do clerical work in a law firm with her cousin Laura Gillen. She also held a job selling clothes at the chain store the Merry-Go-Round at the Lakeside Shopping Center.^{[citation needed]} Other working experiences included J.C. Penney,^[5] being a waitress at TGI Friday's and another restaurant, a house painter, a hostess, and a bartender. She relates much of her childhood and career experiences in her comedic work.

Ancestry[link]

On a February 9, 2011, episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, DeGeneres told her studio audience via a letter from the New England Genealogical Society that she is Kate Middleton's 15th cousin via their shared common ancestor Thomas Fairfax.^[6]

Stand-up comedy[link]

DeGeneres started performing stand-up comedy at small clubs and coffee houses. By 1981 she was the emcee at Clyde's Comedy Club in New Orleans. DeGeneres cites Woody Allen and Steve Martin as her main influences at this time.^[1] In the early 1980s she began to tour nationally, being named Showtime's Funniest Person in America in 1982.^[7] In 1986 she appeared for the first time on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, who likened her to Bob Newhart.^[1] When Carson invited her over for an onscreen chat after her performance, she became the first comedienne in the show's history to be treated this way.^[7]

Film career[link]

Early screen work[link]

Ellen DeGeneres at the Emmy Awards, 1997

Television and film work in the late 1980s and early 1990s included roles on television in Open House and in the film Coneheads. In 1992, producers Neal Marlens and Carol Black cast DeGeneres in their sitcom Laurie Hill, in the role of Nurse Nancy MacIntyre. The series was canceled after only four episodes, but Marlens and Black were so impressed with DeGeneres' performance that they soon cast her in their next ABC pilot, These Friends of Mine, which they co-created with David S. Rosenthal.

[edit] Ellen's Energy Adventure

DeGeneres starred in a series of films for a show named Ellen's Energy Adventure, which is part of the Universe of Energy attraction and pavilion at Walt Disney World's Epcot. The film also featured Bill Nye, Alex Trebek, Michael Richards, and Jamie Lee Curtis. 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. The next film had DeGeneres hosting an educational look at energy, co-hosted with Nye. The ride first opened on September 15, 1996, as Ellen's Energy Crisis, but was quickly renamed to the more positive-sounding Ellen's Energy Adventure.

Television career[link]

[edit] Ellen (1994–1998)

At the Governor's Ball after the 46th Annual Emmy Awards telecast, Sept. 1994

DeGeneres's comedy material became the basis of the successful 1994–1998 sitcom Ellen, named These Friends of Mine during its first season. 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."^[8]

Ellen reached its height of popularity in February 1997, when DeGeneres made her homosexuality public on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Subsequently her character on the sitcom came out of the closet in April to her therapist, played by Oprah Winfrey, revealing that she is gay.^[9] The coming-out episode, titled "The Puppy Episode", was one of the highest-rated episodes of the show. Later episodes of the series did not match its popularity, and after declining ratings, the show was canceled. DeGeneres returned to the stand-up comedy circuit, and later re-established herself as a successful talk show host.

[edit] The Ellen Show

DeGeneres returned to series television in 2001 with a new CBS sitcom, The Ellen Show.

[edit] The Ellen DeGeneres Show

DeGeneres launched a daytime television talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show in September 2003. Amid a crop of several celebrity-hosted talk shows surfacing at the beginning of that season, such as those of Sharon Osbourne and Rita Rudner, her show has consistently risen in the Nielsen ratings and received widespread critical praise. It was nominated for 11 Daytime Emmy Awards in its first season, winning four, including Best Talk Show. The show has won 25 Emmy Awards in its first three seasons on the air. DeGeneres is known for her dancing and singing with the audience at the beginning of the show and during commercial breaks. She often gives away free prizes and trips to her studio audience with the help of her sponsors.

DeGeneres celebrated her thirty-year class reunion by flying her graduating class to California to be guests on her show in February 2006. She presented Atlanta High School with a surprise gift of a new electronic LED marquee sign.

In May 2006, DeGeneres made a surprise appearance at the Tulane University commencement in New Orleans. Following George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton to the podium, she came out in a bathrobe and furry slippers. "They told me everyone would be wearing robes," she said. Ellen then went on to make another commencement speech at Tulane in 2009.^[10]

The show broadcast for a week from Universal Studios Orlando in March 2007. Skits included DeGeneres going on the Hulk Roller Coaster Ride and the Jaws Boat Ride.

In May 2007, DeGeneres was placed on bed rest due to a torn ligament in her back. She continued hosting her show from a hospital bed, tended to by a nurse, explaining "the show must go on, as they say." Guests sat in hospital beds as well.

On May 1, 2009, DeGeneres celebrated her 1000th episode, featuring celebrity guests such as Oprah, Justin Timberlake, and Paris Hilton, among others.

[edit] American Idol

On September 9, 2009, it was confirmed that DeGeneres would replace Paula Abdul as a judge of the ninth season of American Idol. Her role started after the contestant auditions, at the beginning of "Hollywood Week".^[11][12] It is reported that DeGeneres also signed a contract to be a judge on the show for at least five seasons.^[13] She made her American Idol debut on February 9, 2010.

On July 29, 2010, DeGeneres and Fox executives announced that the comedienne would be departing from the series after one season. In a statement, DeGeneres said that the series "didn't feel like the right fit for me".^[14]

Award shows[link]

2001 Emmy Awards[link]

DeGeneres received wide exposure on November 4, 2001, when she hosted the televised broadcast of the Emmy Awards. Presented after two cancellations due to network concerns that a lavish ceremony following the September 11, 2001 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?"

In August 2005, DeGeneres hosted the 2005 Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony held on September 18, 2005. This was three weeks after Hurricane Katrina, making it the second time she hosted the Emmys following a national tragedy. She also hosted the Grammy Awards in 1996 and in 1997.

Ellen DeGeneres in 2004

79th Academy Awards[link]

On September 7, 2006, DeGeneres was selected to host the 79th Academy Awards ceremony, which took place on February 25, 2007.^[15] This makes her the first openly gay or lesbian person to have hosted the event. 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. And I want to put this out there: If there weren't blacks, Jews and gays, there would be no Oscars, or anyone named Oscar, when you think about that."^[16] 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."^[17] Regis Philbin said in an interview that "the only complaint was there's not enough Ellen."

DeGeneres was nominated for an Emmy Award as host of the Academy Awards broadcast.^[18]

2007 Writers Guild strike[link]

DeGeneres, like many actors who are also writers, is a member of both the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) and the Writers Guild of America (WGA). Thus, although DeGeneres verbally supported the 2007 WGA strike, she did not support it when she crossed the picket line the day after the strike began.^[19][20] Her representatives said she was competing with other first-run syndicated shows during the competitive November sweeps period, and that she could not break her contracts or risk her show's losing its time slot. As a show of solidarity with the strikers, DeGeneres omitted her monologue during the strike, typically written by WGA writers.^[21] The WGA condemned her while the AFTRA defended her.^{[22][23][24][25]}

Other ventures[link]

Ellen at Tulane University in 2009

Voice acting[link]

DeGeneres lent her voice to the role of Dory, a fish with short-term memory loss, in the summer 2003 hit animated Disney/Pixar film Finding Nemo. The film's director, Andrew Stanton, claimed that he chose Ellen because she "changed the subject five times before one sentence had finished" on her show.^[26] For her performance as Dory, DeGeneres won the Saturn Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films for "Best Supporting Actress"; "Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie" from the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards; and the Annie Award from the International Animated Film Association for "Outstanding Voice Acting". She was also nominated for a Chicago Film Critics Association Award in the "Best Supporting Actress" category. She also provided the voice of the dog in the prologue of the Eddie Murphy feature film Dr. Dolittle. Her win of the Saturn Award marked the first and only time the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films has given the acting award for a voice performance.

Commercial spokeswoman[link]

In November 2004, DeGeneres appeared, dancing, in an ad campaign for American Express. 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 and Mather. In 2007, the commercial won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Commercial.

DeGeneres began working with Cover Girl Cosmetics in September 2008, for which she has been criticized, as her animal-friendly values clash with Procter and Gamble's (the maker of Cover Girl Cosmetics) animal testing.^[27] Her face is the focus of new Cover Girl advertisements starting in January 2009. The beauty campaign will be DeGeneres's first.^[28]

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.^[29][30]

In Spring 2012, DeGeneres becomes the spokesperson for J.C. Penney in a tour and advertising campaign.^[5]

Eleveneleven[link]

On May 26, 2010, Ellen announced on her show that she was starting her own record label entitled "eleveneleven". Ellen explained her choice of name, claiming that she often sees the number 11:11 when looking at her clocks, that she found Greyson on the 11th, and that the singer's soccer jersey has the number 11.^[31] She mentioned that she had been looking for videos of performances on YouTube to start her label. The acts thus far signed to the label are Greyson Chance, Tom Andrews, and Jessica Simpson.^[32]

Personal life[link]

DeGeneres with Anne Heche at the 1997 Emmy Awards.

DeGeneres was in a relationship (1997–2000) with actress Anne Heche.^[33] From 2001 to 2004, DeGeneres and actress/director/photographer Alexandra Hedison were in a relationship. They appeared on the cover of The Advocate after their separation had already been announced to the media.^[34]

Since 2004, DeGeneres has had a relationship with Portia de Rossi. After the overturn of the same-sex marriage ban in California, DeGeneres announced on a May 2008 show that she and de Rossi were engaged,^[35][36] and gave de Rossi a three-carat pink diamond ring.^[37] They were married on August 16, 2008, at their home, with nineteen guests including their mothers.^[37] The passage of Proposition 8 cast doubt on the legal status of their marriage, but a subsequent California Supreme Court judgment validated it because it occurred before November 4, 2008.^[38][39]

DeGeneres and de Rossi live in Beverly Hills, with three dogs and four cats,^[40] and both are vegan.^[41] DeGeneres served as campaign ambassador to Farm Sanctuary's Adopt-A-Turkey Project in 2010, asking people to start "a new tradition by adopting a turkey instead of eating one" at Thanksgiving.^[42]

On August 6, 2010, de Rossi filed a petition to legally change her name to Portia Lee James DeGeneres^[43] The petition was granted on September 23, 2010.^[44]

In her book Love, Ellen, DeGeneres's mother Betty DeGeneres describes being initially shocked when her daughter came out as a lesbian, but has become one of her strongest supporters, an active member of Parents & Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) and spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign's Coming Out Project.

In 2007, Forbes estimated DeGeneres's net worth at US$65 million.^[45]

She is a fan of the National Football League, and has shown particular support for the New Orleans Saints and the Green Bay Packers.^[46] In 2011, she attended a Saints practice dressed as Packers Hall of Famer Don Hutson.^[47]

Filmography[link]

Film[link]

Television[link]

Discography[link]

Awards and honors[link]

Daytime Emmy Awards

• Outstanding Talk Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show – 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2011
• Outstanding Talk Show Host, The Ellen DeGeneres Show – 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
• Outstanding Special Class Writing, The Ellen DeGeneres Show – 2005, 2006, 2007

Emmy Awards

• Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series, Ellen: "The Puppy Episode" – 1997

Mark Twain Prize for American Humor by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

• 2012 ^[48]

People's Choice Awards

• Favorite Funny Female Star – 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
• Favorite Talk Show Host – 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
• Favorite Yes I Chose This Star – 2008

Kids' Choice Awards

• Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie – 2004

Tulane University President's Medal

• 2009^[49]

Women in Film Crystal + Lucy Awards

• 2000 Lucy Award, actor, If These Walls Could Talk 2, in recognition of her excellence and innovation in her creative works that have enhanced the perception of women through the medium of television.^[50]

Bibliography[link]

• DeGeneres, Ellen (1995). My Point...And I Do Have One. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 0-553-09955-8. 
• DeGeneres, Ellen (2003). The Funny Thing Is.... New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-4761-2. 
• DeGeneres, Ellen (2011). Seriously...I'm Kidding. New York: Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 0-446-58502-5. 

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ellen DeGeneres

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ellen DeGeneres

Wikinews has related news: Portia de Rossi talks about Ellen DeGeneres, sexuality Award show producers try Emmy Idol

• The Ellen DeGeneres Show's official website
• Ellen DeGeneres at the Internet Movie Database
• Ellen DeGeneres at People.com