Ellen's rise to Oscar glory

The former sitcom actress said she was "thrilled" to have been asked.

"There's two things I've always wanted to do in my life," she said. "One is to host the Oscars. The second is to get a call from [its producer] Laura Ziskin."

The 48-year-old has hosted the Emmy Awards twice. In April she won Daytime Emmy awards for best talk show and best host for the second year running.

Academy president Sid Ganis said DeGeneres, best known for her long-running show Ellen, was "a pleasure to watch".

'Challenging'

"I think she'll be a fantastic host for this show and we're extremely pleased that she's agreed to do it."

"Ellen DeGeneres was born to host the Academy Awards," said Ziskin as she made the announcement on Thursday. "There is no more challenging hosting job in show business."

She becomes only the second woman, after Whoopi Goldberg, to present the annual telecast single-handedly.

Next year's Oscars will be held on 25 February at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.

Comedian Jon Stewart, presenter of the satirical Daily Show programme, hosted this year's event.