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Portia de Rossi, born Amanda Lee Rogers on January 31, 1973, is an Australian
actress who is best known for her role as lawyer Nelle Porter on the television
series Ally McBeal, and as Lindsay Bluth Fünke on the television series Arrested
Development. Born in Melbourne, Victoria, de Rossi was raised in Grovedale, a
suburb of Geelong. As a child she modeled for print and TV commercials. She took
the name Portia de Rossi at a young age:
"When I was 15, I changed it legally. In retrospect, I think it was largely
due to my struggle about being gay. Everything just didn’t fit, and I was trying
to find things I could identify myself with, and it started with my name. I
picked Portia because I was a Shakespeare fan (Portia is the character in The
Merchant of Venice). De Rossi because I was Australian and I thought that an
exotic Italian name would somehow suit me more than Amanda Rogers. When you live
in Australia, Europe is so far away and so fascinating, so stylish and cultured
and sophisticated."
An extremely gifted student, she left the lecture theaters of the Melbourne Law
school to pursue an acting career. She supports Locks of Love, a group that
makes wigs for children with medical hair loss.
De Rossi, who was married for two years to documentary filmmaker Mel Metcalfe
(to get a green card), is now openly gay. From 2000 to 2004, de Rossi dated
singer Francesca Gregorini, daughter of actress Barbara Bach and stepchild of
Ringo Starr. Portia dodged media questions about her sexual orientation and the
relationship during this period. Portia was rarely pictured with Gregorini in
public.
In a September 2005 magazine interview with The Advocate, de Rossi said that
most of her family and Ally McBeal cast mates learned she was gay because of
tabloid pictures of de Rossi and Gregorini in 2001. The couple broke up in late
2004 as de Rossi began dating comedian Ellen DeGeneres. In 2005, de Rossi
officially came out and opened up about being gay in interviews with Details and
The Advocate.
Portia de Rossi was named number 64 in Stuff's 100 Sexiest Women, 31 in Femme
Fatales' Sexiest Women of 2003 list, 24 in Maxims 100 Sexiest Women List in 2004
and in late 2006, the magazine Blender listed her as one of the hottest women of
film and TV.
Portia de Rossi is also a recovering anorexic whose low weight was 82lbs for her
five foot seven height.Photos from her in this time are often seen on pro-ana
websites.
Career
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.
She attracted international attention when she joined the main cast of the Ally
McBeal TV series in 1998 playing lawyer Nelle Porter. She remained with the show
until its end in 2002.
In 2001 she starred in Who is Cletis Tout? with Christian Slater. From 2003 to
2006, de Rossi starred as Lindsay Bluth Fünke on Fox Television's critically
acclaimed, Emmy-winning series Arrested Development.
Portia was strongly considered to play Christina Ricci's role in the film Black
Snake Moan co-starring Samuel L. Jackson
Selected Filmography
Sirens (1994) as Giddy
Scream 2 (1997) as Sorority Sister Murphy
Ally McBeal (1997–2002) (TV series) as Nelle Porter
Girl (1998) as Carla Sparrow
Stigmata (1999) as Jennifer Kelliho
Who is Cletis Tout? (2001) as Tess Donnelly
The Glow (2002) as Jackie Lawrence
The Night We Called It a Day (2003) as Hilary Hunter
Arrested Development (2003–2006) (TV series) as Lindsay Bluth Fünke
Dead & Breakfast (2004) as Kelly
Cursed (2005) as Zela
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