Anderson Cooper Biography

Anderson Cooper is a journalist and television personality who anchors the news show ‘Anderson Cooper 360°’. This biography of Anderson Cooper provides detailed information about his childhood, life, achievements, works & timeline.

Quick Facts

Birthday: June 3, 1967

Nationality: American

Famous: TV Anchors Journalists

Age: 51 Years, 51 Year Old Males

Sun Sign: Gemini

Also Known As: Anderson Hays Cooper

Born in: New York City, New York, U.S

Famous as: Journalist

Height: 1.78 m

Family:

father: Wyatt Emory Cooper

mother: Gloria Vanderbilt

siblings: Carter Vanderbilt Cooper, Christopher Stokowski, Leopold Stanislaus Stokowski

Diseases & Disabilities: Dyslexia

City: New York City

U.S. State: New Yorkers

More Facts

education: Yale University (1989), Dalton School, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Trumbull College

awards: 1993 - Bronze Telly Award for Coverage of famine in Somalia
1997 - Emmy Award for Coverage of Princess Diana's funeral
2001 - GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding TV Journalism

2005 - National Headliner Award for Coverage of a Major News Event
2006 - Emmy Award for Outstanding Feature Story in a Regularly Scheduled Newscast
2007 - Emmy Award for Outstanding Live Coverage of a Breaking News Story – Long Form
2011 - Emmy Award for Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story in a Regularly Scheduled Newscast
2011 - Emmy Award for Outstanding Live Coverage of a Current News Story – Long Form
2013 - GLAAD Media Award

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Anderson Hays Cooper is an award winning journalist and television personality well known for his work with the television channel CNN. Cooper is famous for his high journalistic standards and has covered several major news events around the world. War reporting especially fascinates him as he is often puzzled by the philosophical thought of why some people survive hardships while others succumb to them. He was always interested in news reporting and journalism though he does not have an educational background in either. He became a self-taught journalist when he entered Myanmar with a fake press pass and made his own news coverage which he sold to a small channel. He traveled over several war ravaged regions of the world and filmed stories from Vietnam, Somalia, and Rwanda. He then accepted a position as a correspondent for ABC News and then began hosting the reality show ‘The Mole’. He switched over to CNN as his real interest lay in broadcast news. He has since then covered a number of important stories like the tsunami in Sri Lanka, the death of Pope John Paul II, the conflicts in Egypt and Syria, and more recently, the Boston Marathon bombing, and the Sandy Hook shootings. Currently he hosts the television news show ‘Anderson Cooper 360°’.

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Anderson Cooper

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Childhood & Early Life

He was born to Wyatt Emory Cooper, a writer, and Gloria Vanderbilt, an artist, designer and writer.
He was exposed to the media from a very young. His baby photograph appeared on ‘Harper’s Bazaar’, and he was a guest on ‘The Tonight Show’ in 1970 as a three year old. He modeled with Ford Models when he was 10 years old.
He attended Dalton School in New York City. After graduating, the adventurous youngster traveled around Africa for several months. He went to Yale University from where he graduated in 1989, majoring in political science.
He interned for two summers at the Central Intelligence Agency. However, he did not find in interesting enough and decided to become a journalist instead.
He worked for a short while as a reporter before moving to Vietnam for a year where he studied the Vietnamese language at the University of Hanoi.
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Career

His first job after college was as a fact checker for the small news agency Channel One. Bored with this job, he obtained a fake press pass and entered Myanmar on his own. There he made his own news segments which he sold to Channel One.
He was made a correspondent for ABC News in 1995. Eventually he was promoted as the co-anchor of its ‘World News Now’ program in 1999.
In 2000, he started hosting ABC’s reality show, ‘The Mole’ which is a competition in which the contestants work together to add money to a pot that only one of them will win in the end. He left the game show after its second season.
He returned to broadcast news in 2001 by joining CNN. Initially he anchored alongside Paula Zahn on ‘American Morning’ before becoming CNN”s weekend prime-time anchor in 2002.
He started anchoring ‘Anderson Cooper 360�’, a news show on CNN which is broadcast around the world on CNN International, in 2003. The program covers a number of news stories of the day and includes analysis from experts on the issues.
He covered several important news stories in 2005 which included the tsunami in Sri Lanka, the Cedar revolution, the death of Pope John Paul II, and the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles. These coverages made him very famous and also won him several prestigious awards.
He was added as a co-anchor to the show ‘NewsNight’ in 2005 as a temporary arrangement. Following his addition, the rating for the program increased significantly and Cooper was made a permanent co-anchor.
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To leverage on Cooper’s popularity, CNN expanded his program ‘Anderson Cooper 360�’ to two hours and was shifted to the 10 pm slot in November 2005. CNN was so happy with his performance that he was offered a multi-year deal with a doubling of his salary from $2 million annually to $4 million in 2007.
In 2007, he also hosted the documentary ‘Planet in Peril’ with Sanjay Gupta and Jeff Corwin on CNN and also hosted the ‘CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute’, a show in which ordinary people who perform extraordinary deeds are honoured.
In his first foray into daytime talk show, he hosted ‘Anderson Live’, a syndicated show that debuted in September 2011 as simply ‘Anderson’. The show is distributed in the U.S. and Canada by Warner Bros. Television. The show’s final episode was aired in May 2013.
Quotes: Never

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Major Works

He is best known as the host of the award winning news show, CNN’s ‘Anderson Cooper 360�’ which is a nightly newscast that focuses on the day’s news and events. The show initially ran for one hour, but the popularity of Cooper prompted CNN to expand the program to a two hour time slot. The show also includes expert analysis on the day’s events and issues.

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Awards & Achievements

He was awarded the National Order of Honour and Merit by the Government of Haiti in 2010 for his Reporting on 2010 Haiti earthquake.
He won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story in a Regularly Scheduled Newscast for Anderson Cooper 360: "Haiti in Ruins" in 2011.

Quotes: Culture