Who is the real Ellen DeGeneres?

Ellen DeGeneres has promised lots of games as she films parts of her show before 3,000 fans in Sydney.

Talk show host and comedian Ellen DeGeneres. Picture: Getty Source: AP

Ellen DeGeneres with wife Australian actress Portia Di Rossi. Source: Herald Sun

IN every way, Ellen DeGeneres is a loveable superstar.

She's made a habit of dancing her way onto the set of her daytime TV show, and the comedian radiates the kind of joy that comes from celebrating your inner dork through the medium of dance.

The audience usually responds by busting their own unique moves. The result always looks like an onscreen love-in between the presenter and and her fans as they flail around with delighted abandon.

Ellen DeGeneres will pre-record her television show at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney on Saturday.

Despite the current rapport with her audience, it wasn't always this way. The frontwoman of The Ellen DeGeneres Show is something of a televisual Lazarus.

The talkshow host, currently in Australia for the first time filming upcoming episodes for her program, has found mega-popularity after a very public falling out with fame.

Not so long ago, the roles had dried up, she was broke and her TV career at a dead end. Further success seemed unlikely.

After coming out as a lesbian onscreen and in real life in 1997 during the run of her successful sitcom, Ellen, she was in freefall. Despite winning a slew of Emmys, including one for the episode when DeGeneres' character revealed her sexuality, the show lost sponsors, TV stations were picketed by religious groups, ratings declined and the series was cancelled the following year.

The decision to become the first openly gay lead character in a TV show, while initially hailed as ground-breaking, had backfired.

It seems like an attitude from ancient history, but it appeared the viewing public wasn't ready to embrace a star who decided to be open about her sexuality.

DeGeneres says she was a "punchline'' for late night TV shows and the comic was ridiculed about her sexual orientation in a way akin to public bullying. The message: it wasn't cool to be a lesbian, look like one and she certainly wasn't a prime-time fodder.

In a recent interview with Tracy Grimshaw on A Current Affair, DeGeneres said she lost everything after coming out.

"I was furious at the time.

"Nobody wanted to hire me; for three years I didn't have any offers. Literally, the phone did not ring for three years. I had no money.''

DeGeneres took the opportunity to return to standup, her first love, and left behind her TV career.

Despite her falling out favour a few years earlier, DeGeneres was picked as the host for the Emmy Awards in 2001.

It turned out to be a pivotal gig.

The show had been postponed twice after the 9/11 attacks due to concern the ceremony would appear inappropriate. But when the comic took to the stage, her gentle humour and self-acceptance guided the audience of nervous celebrities through what could have been an awkward and frivilous celebration of entertainment.

She issued a fabulously icebreaking quip from the stage.

"What would bug the Taliban more than seeing a gay woman in a suit surrounded by Jews?'' she said, and the Shubert Theatre in Los Angeles erupted with laughter.

It was as though the audience could breathe a sigh of relief and the show could go on. Suddenly she'd given it a raison d'aciêtre and was setting the tone; the public realised they actually liked DeGeneres.

It wasn't an instant reversal of fortune.

Her follow-up TV sitcom The Ellen Show ran in the US from 2001-2002 failed to make an impact and quickly disappeared from screens.

It was only when, in 2003, she voiced the bumbling character Dory in Finding Nemo and debuted The Ellen DeGeneres Show, her daytime talk show, the public realised they really liked her.

In a culture that loves a redemption story, DeGeneres has one of the best. Her public rise, fall and rise undercuts her fame and fortune (estimated to be upwards of $90 million) and has made her about as normal as a megastar can be.

She's naturally empathetic and audiences know she's had a tough time and can relate - we've all gone through something shit at some point.

On the show, which has since won 35 Daytime Emmy awards, DeGeneres has made a point of letting people in on the detail of her life. She talks about her home, her love of animals and it's through this open attitude she's steadily developed a strong relationship with her fans.

DeGeneres is also refreshingly casual about being a lady who loves to love ladies. After the initial furore that greeted her coming out, there's nothing to hide and it's now just part of what crops up in her general chat.

Knowing about her sexuality isn't even especially important any more, but she's sharing private aspects of herself she once kept hidden. It's built trust with her audience.

After a string of public breakups, she settled down and married Australian actress Portia Di Rossi in 2008 - she bagged a hottie and seems blissfully in love. Somehow that makes DeGeneres all the more adorable.

And then there's the dancing.

DeGeneres' moves let people know it's ok to be themselves, and she's convinced the likes of Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Beyonce,
Brad Pitt and Channing Tatum (who took things a little further with a personal lapdance) to shake their tail feathers on her show.

She uses the power of her show for good, delivering grand gestures and gifts to guests who've faced tragedy. DeGeneres is like a generous aunt who has made compassion cool.

And while she's very funny, DeGeneres is never cruel with her humour. After being vilified for her sexuality, the comedian publicy advocates kindness over cruelty and her shows reflect an anti-bullying ethos.

She didn't last more than a season as a judge on American Idol, and said it was because she couldn't stand ruining people's dreams. A statement explained her decision at the end of the 2010 series. "While I love discovering, supporting and nurturing young talent, it was hard for me to judge people and sometimes hurt their feelings,'' she remarked.

DeGeneres has helped other realise the error of their ways too - Perez Hilton changed the tone of his infamously bitchy blog after a interview where she took him to task on her show.

This affection for DeGeneres has gone global. She's proved emotionally accessible, and while that's something Australian audiences don't see often with local talent, it's one of the main reasons we love her. Expect mobbing scenes reminiscent of Oprah Winfrey's time Down Under in 2010 as DeGeneres travels around the country during her visit.

The connection between the talkshow stars is no coincidence.

When Winfrey ended her long-running show a couple of years ago, it left room for DeGeneres to take her place as daytime TV's top host.

But long before that, DeGeneres chose to come out on Winfrey's show in 1997, and Winfrey returned the favour by playing DeGeneres' therapist in the Ellen episode where her character confessed to being a lesbian.

Few would have predicted their shared time on television would set the wheels in motion for her troubled but ultimately triumphant journey, but
DeGeneres has finally traversed the terrain from entertainment outcast to queen of the small screen.