Former 'Ally McBeal' Star Portia de Rossi Champions Gorilla Conservation

Portia de Rossi, once celebrated as one of the sexiest women of the 2000s and a star of television series like "Ally McBeal," is now dedicating her life to gorilla conservation in Rwanda alongside her wife, Ellen DeGeneres. The couple recently shared a tender photo from their visit to Botswana, highlighting their commitment to Africa and their environmental work.

Far from the film sets that once defined her career, de Rossi's current focus is on protecting the gorilla ecosystem. Her environmental activism intensified after a profound existential reflection in 2018. This shift led her to step away from acting, a decision she announced on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that year.

De Rossi explained her departure from acting, mentioning being let go from "Scandal" and subsequently deciding against returning for a fifth season of "Arrested Development." She stated, "I already knew what my acting career would look like for the next 10 or 20 years, so I decided to leave it and start a business."

This career pivot was supported by DeGeneres, whom de Rossi married in 2008. After a 18-month period of reflection, de Rossi founded General Public, an art curation and publishing company utilizing 3D Synograph technology. In 2022, she gifted DeGeneres a five-hectare plot of land in Rwanda for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, expanding the conservation and research center. This space is now officially known as the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. De Rossi currently divides her time between California, England, and her conservation work in Africa.