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For many years, Portia de rossi has been an actress that many television producers have relied on for their long running shows. De Rossi has been part of many successful shows, and is also known for her current relationship with the biggest name in daytime television. Now in her late 40s, de Rossi has achieved a lot during her career, with plenty of time to add to her resume and the multiple awards that she’s won.

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Born as Amanda Rogers, de Rossi came into the world on January 31, 1973 in Horsham, Australia, and grew up in the state of Victoria. As a child, de Rossi was able to land on television, appearing in advertisements. On top of that, de Rossi did some modeling work to get her name out there, and during her early 20s would finally get her big break as an actress.

De Rossi made her acting debut in the 1994 film “Sirens”, which she followed up the next year with “The Woman in the Moon”. During this time, de Rossi also made her television debut by starring in the short lived shows “Too Something” and “Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher”. After a couple of television movies and guest spots, de Rossi had also appeared in movies such as “Scream 2” and “Stigmata”.

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The 1990s ended with a bang for de Rossi, as she landed a role on the main cast of the hit series “Ally McBeal”. She remained with the show through its run, showing up in nearly 90 episodes before its end in 2002. Other early 2000s work for de Rossi included the TV movie “America’s Prince”, as well as the movies “I Witness” and “The Night We Called It a Day”.

De Rossi had been married in the 1990s to a filmmaker before splitting up, and was then in a relationship with another director named Francesca Gregorini. Following their breakup, de Rossi entered into a relationship with comedian, actress and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. “I saw Ellen and my knees were weak,” de Rossi said. “It was amazing. And it was very hard for me to get her out of my mind after that. Then when I saw her that night, we started talking, and that’s that.”

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The couple soon became very popular, and got both engaged and married in 2008. The two have been together ever since, with de Rossi frequently making appearances on her wife’s massively successful talk show. On her birthday in 2018, de Rossi came up with a generous gift. She purchased a gorilla sanctuary in Rwanda to give the endangered species a permanent home. “I’ve always been passionate about helping animals,” DeGeneres said.

“Nobody knows this more than my wife, and she knew the exact right gift to give me,” DeGeneres continued. “These gorillas are so incredible and so closely linked to us, sharing 98 percent of our DNA. There are only 880 of these majestic creatures left on this planet. I’m beyond excited to get to work with the Fossey Fund to support their work and help protect these amazing animals.”

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DeGeneres and de Rossi had made headlines by announcing that they were indeed gay, being very open about coming out. “The most important thing for me was to never, ever, ever deny it,” de Rossi said. “But I didn’t really have the courage to talk about it (at first). I was thinking, ‘The people who need to know I’m gay know.’”

Since beginning her relationship with DeGeneres, de Rossi hasn’t appeared in very many movies. Since 2009, her only acting role on the big screen came with 2015’s “Now Add Honey”. However, she has remained incredibly busy on television. In 2003, she joined the cast of “Arrested Development”, which aired on several different occasions as a cult classic that kept getting brought back, totalling 70 episodes.

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Other shows since then where de Rossi has been part of the cast includes “Nip/Tuck”, “Better off Ted”, “Scandal” and “Santa Clarita Diet”. De Rossi’s most recent role came with a cameo as a voice actress on the long running series “Family Guy”. For de Rossi, it’s been a series of successes that she never really planned on having. “I stumbled into acting and just loved it,” she said. “I deferred law school - and I’m still deferred.”

Now, acting continues to be something that’s a huge passion for de Rossi and it’s what she wants to do for a long time. “I love to work,” she said. “I really enjoy getting up really early and driving downtown. I just really love the process of acting and being on a series.”