Ellen DeGeneres Mark Twain Award - Comedian Receives Highest Humor Award

Critically acclaimed stand-up comedian, Ellen DeGeneres was bestowed with the highest US award for her accomplishment in comedy on Monday night.

DeGeneres, a well-know gay right activist, was 15th and fourth woman recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. The event was held at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts at the presence of distinguished personalities.

The 54-year-old comedian shot to fame following success of her daytime talk show, 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show.' This television program garnered her enough fame and honour, besides drawing her host of encore.

Meanwhile, the guests in the function appreciated DeGeneres's fortitude and boldness in disclosing her sexual orientation 15 years ago.  During the fourth season of her syndicate talk show 'Ellen' in 1997, she publically revealed as a lesbian.

"It was the right thing for me to do ... it happened to help a lot of people and it happened to cause a ruckus. That was a very fearful time in general for the gay community," DeGeneres said, according to USA Today.  

"I'm flattered. It's fantastic. Of course I think, 'What took so long?," it quoted a buoyed DeGeneres as saying.

DeGeneres was accompanied by her wife, Portia de Rossi, during the star-studded award function. "I am very, very proud of Ellen. She's not only the funniest person I know, but she's such a good person," Rossi said.

"The rest of us comics come from really messed-up, dark childhoods. She might have come from that, I don't know. But it's not what she puts forth. She just puts out this beautiful goodwill," another well-know comedian said John Leguizamo, reported Reuters.