Rosie O'Donnell was born into an Irish family in Commack, Long Island. She was in the middle of 5 children. Her mother died when she was ten. She said that she watched TV nearly 24 hours a day. When she was 18 she dropped out of college and went on to do shows like Gimme A Break, and she produced and hosted Stand Up Spotlight. Now she works on her own down-to-earth syndicated show: The Rosie O'Donnell Show.



Used to work in the catalog department at Sears. Her job was to attach the orders to the catalogs, dump the catalogs in the correct bins, and then fetch the orders for the customers. Voted most popular in her high school class. Started out doing stand-up comedy. Best friends with Madonna. Big Tom Cruise fan. Is allergic to cats and horses. Father was born in Belfast, N. Ireland. Won $20,000 on "Star Search" (1983). Fell and broke her right hand. [March 2000] She refuses to sign autographs for adults. Voted high school homecoming queen. Attended Sawmill Junior High School in Commack, New York. A TV special she co-hosted on Nickelodeon, "Nick News Special Edition: My Family is Different", logged some 100,000 e-mails and calls in protest about its gay-parenting content, before the show even aired 18 June 2002. The campaign was reportedly organized by the Traditional Values Coalition. Linda Ellerbee hosted and produced the show. Once owned and lived in the late Helen Hayes's former home in Nyack, New York. Attended Commack High School South, the same high school as sportscaster Bob Costas. She is a big fan of the Harry Potter book series, and even offered to play "Molly Weasley" in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) for free. Is a third cousin to Bridget Moynahan on her father's side, a fact that Rosie O'Donnell did not know until Bridget was a guest on "The View" (1997). Is good friends with Penny Marshall. She once sued KRSK-FM, a Portland, Oregon, radio station. She was the subject of scathing editorials in Portland as a result of her court action. KRSK had given itself the nickname "Rosie 105", a reference to Portland's nickname, "the Rose City". O'Donnell claimed that she owned the name Rosie, and that the station was trying to cash in on her celebrity nickname. The court found in favor of the radio station.