De Rossi to quit acting

Portia de Rossi has confirmed she has retired from acting.

The Australian actress rose to fame after landing the role of Nelle Porter in legal drama series Ally McBeal and later appeared in such TV shows as Arrested Development, Nip/Tuck and Scandal.

Although de Rossi will be seen in five episodes of the upcoming season 5 of Arrested Development, she said during an interview Wednesday with her wife Ellen DeGeneres on her wife’s TV show that she would no longer be concentrating on her Hollywood career.

“You aren’t a big fan of doing press and talk shows, so thank you for being here,” DeGeneres told her spouse of nearly 10 years. “She really doesn’t. That’s why she actually quit acting. She decided she didn’t want to do anything more with acting and got off of Scandal.”

“I was approaching 45 and I was just wondering was there something that I could tackle now that I’ve never done before that would be very challenging and different. I kind of knew what acting would look like for me for the next 10, 20 years, so I decided to quit and start a business,” de Rossi said.

She said when she tried to explain her decision to the Arrested Development creator at the time, he had other plans for her.

“I called Mitch Hurwitz, who is the creator of Arrested Development, and I said, ‘If there’s a season 5, I won’t be doing it because I quit acting.’ And he seemed really understanding and he totally got it — we had a great conversation. And then he wrote me into five episodes! Don’t know how it happened.”

De Rossi is now focusing on developing an art venture named General Public, in which she collaborates with artists to create their original works as Synographs, or textured prints, and sells them online direct to consumers.