Featuring the new American Idol judge “You say you're sick and tired of hearing about me? I've got news for you: I'm sick and tired of hearing about me.”

Such digs and wisecracks are typical Ellen DeGeneres.

The American comic and talk-show host has been at it for years and knows how to flip a line for laughs. If laughter is the best medicine, it has also done wonders for her bank account. Forbes valued her net worth at US$65 million (RM227 million) in 2007.

It wasn’t always this way. It had been a struggle hitting pay dirt. Ellen worked her way through various lowly jobs before finding fame - and controversy.

She was born on Jan 26, 1958 and was raised in Metairie, Louisana. She went to the University of New Orleans, where she took communications as a major but dropped out after one semester. She then started working as a clerk in a law firm. Along the way, Ellen also worked as a waitress, a house painter, a hostess, a bartender and a saleswoman.

You could say she has always been in the service industry.

Experience, no matter how small or menial, contributes in some way to a person’s outlook and personality.

A lesbian

Ellen had a relationship with former Another World actress Anne Heche from 1997 until 2000. She then dated photographer Alexandra Hedison albeit briefly as well. She found her soulmate in Portia de Rossi, the former Ally McBeal star. They married in August last year and stay in Beverly Hills with three dogs and four cats. Both are vegans by choice.

If you didn’t know by now, Ellen is a lesbian, and a funny one at that.

When told in an interview that televangelist Jerry Falwell had called her “Ellen Degenerate”, she replied: “Really, he called me that? Ellen Degenerate? I've been getting that since the fourth grade. I guess I'm happy I could give him work.”

Ellen, who stands at 5' 7½", began life as a stand-up comedienne at small clubs and coffeehouses. In 1986, she appeared for the first time on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and was invited for an onscreen chat after her performance, making her the first woman comedian in the show's history.

Her slow rise to fame began from then on. She started her sitcom, Ellen, in 1994, which gained in the ratings partly because of her quirky observational humour. Ellen reached the height of popularity when she went public about her sexual orientation on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1997.

Show won 25 Emmys

It was reported that the public and advertising backlash that followed forced ABC executives to cancel the show a year later.

Ellen then hooked up with the CBS network in 2001 to start a new sitcom The Ellen Show, where the gay content was toned down.

The Ellen Degeneres Show was launched in 2006 and has won 25 Emmy Awards in its first three seasons on air.

It had an engaging style and was famous for Ellen's dancing and singing with the audience at the start of the show and during commercial breaks.

On the sidelines, she has done a number of gigs.

Ellen is only the second woman to host the Oscars on her own after Whoopi Goldberg.

Apart from hosting the Grammys, she has also written a book or two, became a commercial spokeswoman and also lent her voice to animated films.

She was the voice of the little dory in Finding Nemo and also that of a dog in the prologue of the Eddie Murphy film Dr Doolittle.

Ellen has a full plate on her table but she wants more. She’s slated to be the fourth American Idol judge in January next year, replacing Paula Abdul who left over a contract dispute.

Her appointment, alongside Idol judges Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi, came as a shock to the fans of the show.

Ellen said she has no formal music experience but has a passion for tunes and will judge on the basis of a person who is going to buy an album.

Fox Network, in backing her for the Idol role, said Ellen would “offer her own unique perspective to the contestants throughout the competition”.

Day job and night job

Ellen was quick to tell her talk show audience that she would not abandon her chat-fest. Instead, she will have a day job and a night job.

“So getting this job is a dream come true, and think of all the money I’ll save from not having to text in my vote,” she said tongue-in-cheek.

One wonders how she will find time to do other essential routines like sleep.

Here’s Ellen signing off on a witty note.

“My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was 60. She's 97 now, and we don't know where the hell she is.”