Facts about Portia de Rossi

Portia de Rossi is 51 years old
Birthplace: Horsham, Victoria, Australia
Best known as:  She played Lindsay on TV's Arrested Development

     

     

Portia de Rossi Biography

Name at birth: Amanda Lee Rogers

Australian-born actress Portia de Rossi is best known for her romantic relationship with Ellen DeGeneres and for her role as Lindsay, the shallower-than-shallow Bluth daughter from the television sitcom Arrested Development. A model in her teenage years, de Rossi spent a year in law school in Melbourne before pursuing acting. After a start in Australia, including a role in 1993’s Sirens (starring Hugh Grant), de Rossi moved to California in the mid-1990s. After several small roles in films and TV shows, de Rossi landed the recurring guest role of Nelle Porter on the hit series Ally McBeal (1998-2002). Her next big role came as part of the ensemble cast of Arrested Development, a comedy series from 2003 to 2006 that grew loyal fans despite battling low ratings (the show also starred Jason Bateman and Michael Cera). While on that show, de Rossi began a relationship with Ellen DeGeneres, and in 2005 she went public as a gay woman (she had been previously married to a man between 1996 and 1999). Since then DeGeneres and de Rossi have been a high-profile lesbian couple — they were married in 2008 — as well as successful TV stars. De Rossi’s other shows include Nip/Tuck (2007-09) and the short-lived sitcom Better Off Ted (2010-11).

Extra credit

 
Portia de Rossi had her name legally changed in 2010 to Portia Lee James DeGeneres… Her 2010 memoir, Unbearable Lightness, tells of her struggle with anorexia while she was a closeted lesbian.


     

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