The Best Photos of Ellen DeGeneres Throughout the Years

A few years after this photo was taken, Ellen graduated from high school and moved back to New Orleans to attend the University of New Orleans, majoring in communication studies. According to IMDb, Ellen dropped out after one semester and entered the workforce.

This photo may be from The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1987, but just the year prior Ellen became the first woman to earn a chair next to the famed TV host. She has mentioned many times, most recently on the Netflix special titled Relatable, that it changed her entire career forever.

In 1995, Ellen released her first of four books she has written thus far: My Point...And I Do Have One. Since then, she has released The Funny Thing Is... in 2003; Seriously...I'm Kidding in 2011; and Home in 2015. Fingers crossed there are more up her sleeve!

In the 1997 episode of Ellen titled “The Puppy Episode,” Ellen’s onscreen counterpart came out—almost simultaneously with what happened in the real world. The episode won two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, and a GLAAD Media Award. It was a ratings win but, because of backlash, the show was cancelled the following season.

Years after the groundbreaking Ellen, audiences were treated to the comedienne's short-lived return to scripted TV with The Ellen Show in 2001. Sadly, it only lasted 13 episodes before being cancelled.

Believe it or not, Ellen has only hosted Saturday Night Live once: December 15, 2001. The season 27 episode featured No Doubt as a musical guest—singing their hits "Hey Baby" and "Hella Good”—and was notably the last season for Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer.

Ellen taught us to "just keep swimming" with the 2003 film Finding Nemo, in which she played a blue tang fish with short-term memory loss named Dory alongside Albert Brooks and Alexander Gould. Finding Nemo went on to win an Oscar and was the #2 film of the year, according to Box Office Mojo.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which began in 2003 and is still going strong in season 16, has been a huge hit for Ellen and has solidified her as one of the most memorable talk show hosts ever—right up there with Oprah Winfrey. In this photo from 2004, she is holding one of the show’s first Daytime Emmy Awards of nearly 60 they have amassed thus far.

Beginning in 2004, Ellen has been in a relationship with Portia de Rossi. The two got engaged and later married at their home on August 16, 2008. The two celebrated their 10-year wedding anniversary just last year and are still going strong.

Replacing the beloved Paula Abdul, Ellen joined American Idol as a judge in its ninth season—the edition that saw Lee DeWyze ultimately win. This ended up being her only season of the show as she said in a statement it just "didn’t feel like the right fit for me."

To celebrate everything she had accomplished—both in professional, philanthropic, and personal ways—Ellen was given her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012. Fellow seasoned TV hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Ryan Seacrest were guest speakers.

Ever since Ellen came out, her mom Betty has been a vocal supporter for LGBTQ rights—she became the first straight spokesperson for the Human Right Campaign's National Coming Out Project and is an active member of PFLAG. On top of all that, Betty is also a breast cancer survivor. That's one incredible mama!

Perhaps the biggest honor of her career, Ellen was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom—the highest honor a civilian can receive—by then-President Barack Obama in 2016. Obama brought up how much courage and bravery she had to come out when she did, saying that her action helped the LGBTQ community and helped "push our country in the direction of justice."

A full 15 years after the success of Finding Nemo, we finally got a sequel with Finding Dory—this time with Ellen’s character at the center of the story. Even though the movie was received well by critics and audiences, even snagging the #3 spot at the box office for the year according to Box Office Mojo, it failed to earn any Oscar nominations.

Continuing to build a TV legacy, Ellen launched a game show titled Ellen's Game of Games in 2017, taking some of the games she played with guests on her talk show and turning them into a whole series. Per Deadline, the show was just recently renewed for a third season, so it’s definitely a hit.

Ellen gave a powerful speech while accepting the honor, which is awarded for excellence in television. "All I've ever wanted to do is make people feel good and laugh," she said. "Thank you so much."