Who is Ellen DeGeneres to audiences? It’s a question she tackles head-on in her upcoming Netflix special, Ellen DeGeneres: For Your Approval, premiering globally on Sept. 24. It marks her final comedy special in a storied four-decade career across stand-up, a couple sitcoms, blockbuster movies, and a hugely popular talk show that lasted nearly 20 years, racking up 3,000 episodes and 60-plus Emmy Award wins.

Though The Ellen DeGeneres Show concluded in 2022, she’s opening up to her fans once again to discuss being “kicked out of show business” — and not for the first time.

We went back through the Ellen archives to create a timeline of Ellen — from her start in the 1980s, to her coming out as gay in the 1990s, to her highly memed Presidential Medal of Freedom.

1981: Stand-up beginnings 

DeGeneres launched her local comedic career in her native Louisiana after dropping out of the University of New Orleans, after exactly one semester as a communications major. Stand-up may have seemed like an alternative route for many, but she made it work, becoming the emcee at Clyde’s Comedy Club in 1981. Not long after, she toured nationally.

“I’m driving down the street in the French Quarter, and there was a sign that said ‘Opening Soon: Clyde’s Comedy Corner’ up on this banister. And I went inside and I asked if the owner was there, and he happened to be there. I told him that I was a comedian and could I be the emcee every night,” she remembered in one interview about her early break.

1986: Johnny Carson appearance

Local comic work is one thing, but a spot on the then-juggernaut The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was another. DeGeneres reached a national audience in a fortuitous stand-up appearance on Carson’s late-night show. You can watch her getting loud laughs when, in one bit, she calls up God for an extremely awkward conversation. Carson called her “fresh” and “clever” and gave her an “open invitation” to show up again. Around the same time, her profile blew up with further club bookings and a performance on HBO’s Young Comedians special.

1989 to 1990: Finding her TV footing

Television isn’t always kind to young, burgeoning comedians more used to playing the familiar circuit of clubs on the road. But DeGeneres sealed her first regular TV role as a cast member of Fox’s Open House, which ran from 1989 to 1990 and centered on the shenanigans of a real estate firm. 

1994: Sitcom stardom

Finally, DeGeneres got a leading role in a sitcom called These Friends of Mine (later retitled just Ellen), which debuted on ABC and ran for five seasons from 1994 to 1998, following neurotic yet delightful bookstore owner Ellen Morgan.

“I was laughing out loud when I read the script,” she told The New York Times in a 1994 interview. “I knew what I could do with it. I wanted to do a smarter, hipper version of I Love Lucy, only don’t take it so far that I’m in a man’s suit with a mustache trying to fool Ricky that I’m not his wife. I wanted a show that everybody talks about the next day.”

1997: Coming out on Ellen

In the ’90s, the landscape for LGBTQ+ public figures didn’t look quite like it does today. DeGeneres, feeling like she needed to be honest with both herself and her fans, told the world exactly who she was. Specifically, on the cover of Time magazine with a headline playing on the rumors about her sexuality: “Yep, I’m Gay.” (Congrats if you saved the issue: It’s a legit collector’s item now.) 

Similarly the Ellen of her show came out in an episode called “The Puppy Episode” that aired on April 30, 1997. The cat may have been out of the bag, but that didn’t stop curious viewers from tuning in. The episode, also featuring billboard names like Oprah, Billy Bob Thornton, and Demi Moore (hey, this was the ’90s, after all), drew a massive 42 million viewers to see how the story (and real-life) arc would play out. The episode collected two Emmy Awards. 

It’s considered a classic, influential slice of TV now, but following the controversy and a ratings decline in the next season, Ellen ended in 1998. And Ellen herself? Well, as she aptly sums up, the show’s cancellation was just the first time she was kicked out of show business.

2001 to 2002: The comeback attempt

Sitting on her laurels has never squared with DeGeneres, and so by September 2001, she’d launched another sitcom revolving around her (or rather her character Ellen Richmond, who survived a dot-com bubble burst and moved back in with her mother). Despite a host of other talented stars like now-legend Jim Gaffigan, CBS’s The Ellen Show failed to capture the spark of her first hit and was canceled after only 13 episodes, with a further five left unaired.

2003: A regal return

In 2003, she pivoted into the sound booth as the voice of Dory the fish in Finding Nemo. Premiering in May of that year, it was a box office juggernaut that is high on many fans’ lists of the best film to come out of the formidable Pixar factory. (To no one’s surprise, a Dory-centric sequel, Finding Dory, followed in 2016.)

But DeGeneres wasn’t dropping the mic. In what could be considered a victory lap, her next solo special, Here and Now, aired the same year. And perhaps her most notable transformation came with The Ellen DeGeneres Show (aka Ellen), a syndicated talk show produced by Warner Bros. and her own production company A Very Good Production. It kicked off on various stations (many NBC-owned) on Sept. 8, 2003. Laced with Ellen’s sarcastic wit, it became known for its fan giveaways, silly games, celebrity guest pranking, and of course, the signature call to “be kind.”

2004–2016: Ellen on TV

DeGeneres was back in Hollywood’s good graces, thanks in no small part to the love around Ellen: The talk show would go on to air 19 seasons and earn 64 Daytime Emmy Awards — 12 of those statuettes were for Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show, the category in which Ellen would become a record holder.

But Ellen the person may be a record holder in keeping busy: She split her time between Ellen and a host of other appearances, including guesting on The Bernie Mac Show and Six Feet Under in 2004, Joey in 2005, Sesame Street in 2007, The Simpsons in 2010, The Big Bang Theory (twice) in 2016 and 2019. That’s in addition to more host and judging gigs: the Emmy Awards (2005), the Academy Awards (2007, before returning to the gig in 2014), and American Idol (2010). 

2018–2020: Back to stand-up

DeGeneres was riding relatively high in these years. DeGeneres’ first stand-up special in 15 years, Ellen DeGeneres: Relatable, landed on Netflix in 2018, gently poking fun at her public image. It raked in rave reviews, including one from Vanity Fair that called the special “a high-wire act only she could pull off.” Kate McKinnon handed her the esteemed Carol Burnett Award at the 77th Golden Globe Awards in January 2020 for her contributions to TV comedy and funniness in general.

2020–2022: The widespread backlash

DeGeneres had built up a reputation of being “kind,” which she fully acknowledges made it easy to target her when nefarious allegations surrounding her talk show came up. In 2020, allegations surfaced while the world was hunkered down in a pandemic that not all of Ellen’s image matched the experiences of people behind the scenes. 

DeGeneres apologized to staff, writing that from the get-go, “I told everyone … that [Ellen] would be a place of happiness — no one would ever raise their voice, and everyone would be treated with respect. Obviously, something changed, and I am disappointed to learn that this has not been the case. And for that, I am sorry.” 

Ellen aired its final episode on May 26, 2022.

2024: The final special

There’s no getting around it: Ellen DeGeneres is a monumental comedy talent who’ll be remembered for generations to come. As for what that legacy looks like? Well, her Netflix special — and a capper to her four decades in show business — For Your Approval may prove pivotal. She touches on all of it: her “immature” boss vibe, OCD tendencies, and the catastrophic embarrassment of trying and failing to parallel park in front of an outdoor cafe. And what it means to not want the public’s adoration, even when you kind of do.