Portia de Rossi was born Amanda Lee Rogers on the 31st January 1973 in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. She is an actress best known for her roles on the American television shows, Ally McBeal and Arrested Development. As a child, she modelled for print and TV commercials. She took the name Portia de Rossi at a young age: she said in an interview, "When I was 15, I changed it legally. In retrospect, I think it was largely due to my struggle about being gay". An extremely gifted student, she left the lecture theatres of the University of Melbourne Law School to pursue an acting career. She supports Locks of Love, a charity group that buys wigs for children with medically induced hair loss. Her first significant role was playing a young and impressionable model in the Australian 1994 film Sirens. Soon afterwards she moved to Los Angeles and had guest roles on TV shows before landing a role in the film Scream 2. Then came Ally McBeal from 1998 to 2002. After that she appeared in a couple of B films before landing the role in Arrested Development from 2003 to 2006. She is due to join the cast of Nip/Tuck for its fifth season in 2008. To get her Green Card to allow her to work in US the entered a "marriage of convenience" with documentary maker Mel Metcalfe for two years. She is currently dating talk show host and comedian Ellen DeGeneres.
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