Ellen: I don't find acting to be a particularly noble way to make a living. I'm not saving anybody's life, I'm not a teacher, I'm not working for UNICEF. I don't think I'm some big deal.
Ellen: (On her days as a cocktail waitress) I wouldn’t say I was a good drink maker, but I was a very good hustler. I’d abuse the customers, yell and scream at them and make them wait. If they put money down on the bar and it wasn’t enough, I’d go wait on someone else who was giving me enough money. If they put another five down and I made them wait longer, pretty soon there would be $20 on the bar. Then I’d come over and give them a drink.
Ellen: I was raised by drag queens, practically... My mother died when I was four-years-old, so I was effectively raised by a bunch of different people. A lot of those people were friends of my sister, Kathleen, who had all these gay friends. She would baby-sit me everyday, and she would take me over to her friend's houses with all kinds of things going on: tucking, and eyebrow drawing, waxing, all sorts of things. I was literally raised by gay men.
Ellen (On her first boyfriend): I didn’t have any confidence as a young girl, because all the other girls had breasts and hips. I was always thin, always called the stick or the pencil. I didn’t have a boyfriend until I was 16, and he was eight years older. My father was furious about this 24-year-old, and I had to hide the relationship.
Ellen (Talking about Grey's Anatomy): Everyone keeps asking me if I’m nervous, I’m really not, you know I don’t really think about what’s going to happen with the show. I’m getting to act everyday and that’s really what I love and I’m so happy to be doing that, I’ll worry about what happens when it happens.
Ellen (On her character Meredith Grey): She's smart enough to make her way through medical school but she can't figure out that she can't sleep with strangers all the time.
Ellen: (on Grey’s Anatomy) I would say the surgery scenes are kind of gross. It smells. It is unpleasant. There are usually animal parts.
Ellen (talking about when she was complimented by actor Jake Gyllenhaal shortly after arriving in Hollywood. Just three weeks later, she was working with him on Moonlight Mile): It was the best thing that happened to me all week - to say the very least...I was so flattered. I thanked him and told him how much I hoped we would have a chance to work together one day.
Ellen: (about Patrick Dempsey) I haven't publicly said this before, but I do have a crush on him.
Ellen (about Patrick Dempsey): Patrick is very adorable, but very married in real life. I'm very good friends with his wife.
Ellen's fiance, Chris Ivery, has a drug-dealing past and has served three jail sentences. On this matter, Ellen insists Ivery's past is no surprise to her and has vowed to stand by her man.
Ellen once stated in Self magazine that she was (contrary to rumors) not suffering from an eating disorder. She also stated that she has a very fast metabolism, and must eat 3000 calories a day to maintain her weight, otherwise she could be hospitalized.
Ellen played a supporting role in the 1995 New York Film Academy silent short film Do You Have the Time? by director Pete Sprankle.
Shortly after her and her, now, fiance started dating, they found out they only grew up 10 miles away from each other in Boston.
Ellen was introduced to her fiance, Chris Ivery, at a Whole Foods Market store in Los Angeles.
Ellen sometimes tries to distract her fiance, Chris Ivery, when romantic scenes, between her and another character, are played.
Ellen has no preference between acting in TV and movies.
She hates when people want to take pictures of her on their camera phones, especially after a long day at work.
Although she absolutely adores Patrick Dempsey, Ellen's advice to her Grey's Anatomy character, Meredith, would be to move on from Derek, Dempsey's character.
Ellen wanted to be an archaeologist when she was young.
Ellen admits that she learns a lot from all the medical terminology she has to learn on Grey's Anatomy.
Ellen was upset at the Grey's Anatomy producers because she believes she should have input into the decisions made to affect certain aspects of the show.
Ellen shared in the 2007 SAG Award given to the Grey's Anatomy cast for 'Outstanding Ensemble in a Drama Series'.
She is the youngest of 6 - she has 5 siblings who are all at least 8 years older than her.
Ellen is on the cover of the December 2006 issue of Allure.
Ellen was approached by an agent about acting in commercials while she was a bartender at the SoHo Bar & Grill, in 1996.
Ellen suffers from asthma.
Ellen lives right next door to Patrick Dempsey.
Ellen was 26 before she began in the entertainment business.
Ellen plays herself in a filmography titled Moonlight Mile: A Journey to Screen.
Ellen was nicknamed The Pencil.
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