Claim: Ellen DeGeneres has acted as an openly lesbian character on TV.
Evidence: DeGeneres starred in the popular sitcom Ellen from 1994 to 1998 and has hosted her syndicated TV talk show , The Ellen DeGeneres Show , since 2003.
The series is notable for being one of the first with a main character to come out as gay , which DeGeneres ' character did in the 1997 episode `` The Puppy Episode '' , which aired shortly after DeGeneres publicly revealed that she was gay in real life.