Soledad O'Brien
Soledad O'Brien
María de la Soledad Teresa O'Brienis an American broadcast journalist and executive producer. She is the chairman of Starfish Media Group, a multi-platform media production company and distributor. O'Brien continues to be a television anchor and correspondent and lists CNN, HBO and their sports news program Real Sports and the Al Jazeera America news program America Tonight, among a growing list of networks she is working with through her Starfish Media Group. She also served as executive producer and moderator...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNews Anchor
Date of Birth19 September 1966
CitySt. James, NY
CountryUnited States of America
I like being done up! I love going to events and wearing fabulous gowns. I like hitting that spot of doing what feels good for me. If it makes other people happy, great; if it doesn't, then that's great, too!
My trademark at CNN was really asking insightful questions and making sure people are understanding the connections in humanity, and I think that is the core of education.
I started a lecture series that was inspired by my reporting on race in America. The 'Black in America' series launched on CNN in 2007 as an opportunity to freshen the national conversation on race.
It is truly not fun to be the family that sticks out in an all-white community. On the other side, I have five brothers and sisters; we all look exactly the same, and we're very, very tight. The lessons about race were not pleasant, but there are things that I loved about my childhood.
Morning TV is about habits. What you really need is for viewers to find you, get comfortable with you, make you part of their mornings. If you can make news, deliver things they value, you can be successful.
People are interested in things not necessarily covered by the mainstream media, so they download things online. The categories are growing because people find out that they're not able to get information about stories that are of interest to them on the evening news.
We have a foundation, the Soledad O'Brien Starfish Foundation. We send girls to and through college. We started-off saying we send girls to college, but to do so is not enough. Seeing them through college is the key.
We struck an unusual deal. I'll get to leave CNN with my catalog and documentaries. We were able to create a brand at CNN - 'Black in America' - that I now own. I can take that brand and extend it in any way I want.
When I took a couple of years to do the documentaries after I left 'American Morning' - what was I gone for, five years? - I didn't feel that I was floating under the radar.
When I was leaving NBC News to go to CNN, people would say, 'What?! Why would you possibly leave the 'Today Show' to go to cable?' If I would've listened to people, I would've been on a great platform, but I wouldn't have grown as a journalist. So far, most of the steps in my career have been really good.