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Harrington School of Communication and Media

Advisory Board

Mary Connelly

Mary Connelly

Executive Producer,

The Ellen Degeneres Show
Burbank, CA

Mary Connelly'83 is an Executive Producer of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, a position she has held since 2001.

A URI Psychology alumna, Mary began her entertainment career in 1984 as an NBC page in New York City answering phones, escorting guests, giving studio tours, etc. Fifteen months later she took a receptionist position at Late Night With David Letterman and rose through the ranks there to become a Segment Producer in 1991. She then moved to Los Angeles where she worked as a producer on Mad About You and Whose Line Is It Anyway?, and executive producer on The Late Late Show With Craig Kilborn.

During this time Mary earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series, and came to the attention of Ellen DeGeneres. When she received a phone call in 2001 from the company developing DeGeneres' new show offering her an executive producer position, she accepted.

Since working for Ellen, Mary has been nominated for numerous Daytime Emmy awards, and won the Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2010, the Johnny Carson Television Producer of the Year Award in 2005 and 2006, and the Emmy for Outstanding Promotional Announcement, Institutional, in 2009.