My Name is Nikita Doskochynskyy and my birthday is the same as Ellen DeGeneres. Ellen Lee DeGeneres was born January 26, 1958 in New Orleans, Louisiana. She was the daughter of an insurance salesman and a working mother who were divorced when DeGeneres was a teenager. When she was growing up she dreamed of becoming a veterinarian, but she gave up the idea because she was "not book smart." Instead, she waited tables, sold vacuum cleaners, painted houses, worked as a legal secretary. DeGeneres finally found success as an actress with her own prime-time sitcom, the self-titled television series, Ellen. Her TV show is a little like Ophra. The show faced strong criticism when, in April 1997, DeGeneres' character became the first lead in sitcom history to openly acknowledge her homosexuality on air. An ABC affiliate in Birmingham, Alabama, refused to air the landmark episode. Some of the show's sponsors, Daimler Chrysler among them, withdrew advertisements. Ellen Degeneres has had a strange life and is a wonderful person. It is an honor to have the same birthday as her.