Early life
Ellen Kathleen Pompeo was born in Everett, Massachusetts, the daughter of Joseph, a salesman, and Kathleen Pompeo. Of Irish and Italian descent, she was raised Roman Catholic. Pompeo's grandfather was born in Gesualdo, a village in the Province of Avellino, Italy. Her mother died of a painkiller overdose when Ellen was four, and her father remarried soon after. She has five siblings: three sisters and two brothers. She was nicknamed the pencil, and Stracciatella (an Italian egg drop soup).
For more than two years, she served cocktails in Miami, where she met fashion photographer Andrew Rosenthal, with whom she was romantically linked for some time. In 1996, she was bartending at the SoHo Bar & Grill in New York City's Upper West Side when an agent approached her to appear in commercials. Subsequently, she appeared in commercials for Citibank and L'Oréal. She began her career with minor roles on television shows like Strangers with Candy, Friends and Law & Order and a handful of others.
Career
Determined to succeed in acting, Pompeo moved to Los Angeles in 2001. She participed in the movie Mambo Café with Thalía. A turning point came when she was selected by director Brad Silberling in 2002 for a role in his film Moonlight Mile playing Jake Gyllenhaal's sympathetic love interest. She also appeared in the film Daredevil playing Matt Murdock's (Ben Affleck) secretary Karen Page, but most of her scenes were deleted from the theatrical version of the film.[citation needed] In 2002, Pompeo appeared in Catch Me If You Can and in 2003, Old School. Television guest roles include two episodes of Law & Order and an episode of Friends. She portrayed Jim Carrey's ex-girlfriend, Naomi, in the 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Although her scenes were cut from the film, she felt grateful that director Michel Gondry chose her to appear in his film.
Pompeo landed her first major role in the ABC medical drama Grey's Anatomy, which is now in its eighth season, as the title character, Meredith Grey, a surgical resident at a prestigious hospital. In 2007, Pompeo was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama Series.[citation needed] That year, she also signed a new contract for Grey's Anatomy that increased her salary to US$200,000 per episode. She is contracted with the show for eight seasons which is the standard length in Hollywood after which actors often demand large raises.
On October 13, 2007, Pompeo was honored by the National Italian American Foundation for her achievement in entertainment at a black-tie gala in Washington, D.C.
On October 27, 2011 Deadline.com reported that Ellen Pompeo has launched her own production company called Calamity Jane which sold its first project to ABC, an untitled show about female agents on the Secretary of State's security detail. Pompeo will be the show's executive producer.
Personal life
Pompeo married Chris Ivery on Friday, November 9th, 2007. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was the legal witness to the ceremony. She gave birth to her first child - a daughter named Stella Luna, on September 15, 2009.
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