34 Facts About Anderson Cooper

Anderson Cooper was hired by ABC News as a correspondent in 1995, but he soon took more jobs throughout the network, working for a short time as a co-anchor, reality game show host, and fill-in morning talk show host.

Anderson Cooper developed a reputation for his on-the-ground reporting of breaking news events, with his coverage of Hurricane Katrina causing his popularity to sharply increase.

Anderson Cooper has won 18 Emmy Awards and two Peabody Awards, as well as an Edward Murrow Award from the Overseas Press Club in 2011.

In 2016, Anderson Cooper became the first openly LGBT person to moderate a presidential debate, and he has received several GLAAD Media Awards.

Anderson Cooper was born in Manhattan, New York City, the younger son of writer Wyatt Emory Anderson Cooper and artist Gloria Vanderbilt.

Anderson Cooper is a third cousin, once removed, of actor Timothy Olyphant.

At the age of three, Anderson Cooper was a guest on The Tonight Show on September 17,1970, appearing with his mother.

From age 10 to 13, Anderson Cooper modeled with Ford Models for Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and Macy's.

Anderson Cooper attended the Dalton School, a private co-educational day school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

At age 17, after graduating from Dalton a semester early, Anderson Cooper traveled around Africa for several months on a "survival trip".

Anderson Cooper contracted malaria on the trip and was hospitalized in Kenya.

Anderson Cooper was inducted into the Manuscript Society and majored in political science, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1989.

Anderson Cooper is a self-proclaimed "news junkie since [he] was in utero".

At the time, Anderson Cooper was working as a fact checker for the small news agency Channel One, which produces a youth-oriented news program that is broadcast to many junior high and high schools in the United States.

Anderson Cooper was ultimately able to sell his home-made news segments to Channel One.

In 1995, Anderson Cooper became a correspondent for ABC News, eventually rising to the position of co-anchor on its overnight World News Now program on September 21,1999.

Anderson Cooper was a fill-in co-host for Regis Philbin on Live with Regis and Kelly in 2007 when Philbin underwent triple-bypass heart surgery.

Anderson Cooper left The Mole after its second season to return to broadcast news.

In 2005, Anderson Cooper covered a number of important stories, including the tsunami damage in Sri Lanka; the Cedar Revolution in Beirut, Lebanon; the death of Pope John Paul II; and the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles.

In early 2007, Anderson Cooper signed a multi-year deal with CNN that would allow him to continue as a contributor to 60 Minutes, as well as doubling his salary from $2 million annually to a reported $4 million.

In October 2007, Anderson Cooper began hosting the documentary Planet in Peril with Sanjay Gupta and Jeff Corwin on CNN.

Anderson Cooper has been a correspondent for the CBS News program 60 Minutes since 2007, while concurrently serving as a CNN anchor and correspondent.

Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper announced that they would be going on a national tour to perform their conversational stage show AC2 beginning in March 2015.

The idea for the show came about after Anderson Cooper interviewed Cohen about his then-latest book, The Andy Cohen Diaries, at an event at the 92nd Street Y in New York City.

Anderson Cooper was the narrator for the 2011 Broadway revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, directed by Rob Ashford and starring Daniel Radcliffe.

In May 2006, Anderson Cooper published a memoir for HarperCollins, Dispatches from the Edge, detailing his life and work in Sri Lanka, Africa, Iraq and Louisiana over the previous year.

Anderson Cooper said his goal in writing the book and correspondence was to leave "nothing left unsaid" between the pair.

Anderson Cooper is openly gay; as of 2012, he was "the most prominent openly gay journalist on American television".

For years, Anderson Cooper avoided discussing his private life in interviews.

In March 2018, Anderson Cooper confirmed that he and Maisani had split up.

Anderson Cooper has been friends with Andy Cohen for over twenty years.

Anderson Cooper was friends with Anthony Bourdain, celebrity chef and host of the CNN series Parts Unknown.

On February 10,2022, Anderson Cooper announced at the beginning of his show on CNN that he had just become a father for a second time to a son named Sebastian Luke Maisani-Anderson Cooper.

Anderson Cooper has won 18 Emmy Awards, including two for his coverage of the earthquake in Haiti, and an Edward R Murrow Award.