Her first name is a household word. But before she became the host of her own wildly successful daytime talk show, Ellen DeGeneres worked her way up through the prime-time TV ranks in numerous roles, frequently with someone else’s name.
1989 Duet
DeGeneres appeared in one episode of this Fox sitcom as sassy, man-hungry secretary Margo Van Meter, a role she reprised with more regularity in its spinoff, Open House (1989–1990).
1992 Laurie Hill
In 10 episodes of this single-season ABC sitcom, DeGeneres played flaky nurse Nancy MacIntyre, a co-worker to the show’s main character, a female pediatrician (DeLane Matthews).
1994–1998 Ellen
In her first starring role in her breakout ABC sitcom (originally titled These Friends of Mine), she played Ellen Morgan, a neurotic bookstore owner. The groundbreaking 1997 episode in which her character “came out” as gay aligned with the “real” Ellen’s newfound public openness about her own sexuality.
1995 Roseanne
As the motor-mouthed couples therapist Dr. Whitman, she stole her one scene in an episode titled “The Blaming of the Shrew.”
1996 The Dana Carvey Show
Making an appearance on this ABC sketch comedy show hosted by the former Saturday Night Live star, DeGeneres livened up a skit as Ellen Morgan from her own network sitcom.
1996 and 1998 The Larry Sanders Show
She played a version of herself in two episodes of Gary Shandling’s critically acclaimed satire of late-night TV talk shows.
1998 Mad About You
She was Nancy Bloom, a production-company caterer who gets hired to work as a temporary nanny for the daughter of Paul (Paul Reiser) and Jamie (Helen Hunt).
2001 Will & Grace
In an episode titled “My Uncle the Car,” Will (Eric McCormack) sells a jalopy that once belonged to the dearly departed uncle of Grace (Debra Messing) to a business-savvy nun (DeGeneres)—then Grace changes her mind and wants it back.
2001-2002 The Ellen Show
She starred, alongside Jim Gaffigan, Cloris Leachman and Martin Mull, as an internet exec who relocates to a quirky small town, but the show had to pack up and move on after only 13 episodes (plus five that were never broadcast).
2003-present The Ellen DeGeneres Show
Ellen gets her own show, under her own name, with this syndicated hit daytime series that’s still going strong today (and for which she serves as executive producer).