Katie Couric Biography

Katherine Anne Couric, better known as Katie Couric (born Arlington, Virginia January 7, 1957) is an American media personality.

Couric was born in Arlington, Virginia to John Couric (an Episcopalian) and Elinor (who was Jewish). She enrolled in the University of Virginia in 1975, graduating in 1979 with a degree in American Studies. During her fourth year at the University, Couric was chosen to live on the Lawn, the heart of Thomas Jefferson's academical village.
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Her journalism career began when she was hired as a desk assistant for the ABC News bureau in Washington, D.C., later joining CNN as an assignment editor. Between 1984 and 1986, she worked as a general-assignment reporter for WTVJ in Miami, Florida. During the following two years, she reported for WRC-TV, an NBC station in Washington, D.C., work which earned her an Associated Press award and an Emmy.

Couric joined NBC News in 1989 as a reporter. From 1989 to 1991 Couric filled in for Bryant Gumbel as host of Today, Jane Pauley, and Deborah Norville as co-host of Today, Garrick Utley, Mary Alice Williams, and Maria Shriver as co-host of Sunday Today, John Palmer, Deborah Norville, and Faith Daniels as anchor of the former NBC News program NBC News at Sunrise, and also for Faith Daniels, Deborah Norville, and John Palmer as the newsreader on Today. In 1990, she joined Today as national correspondent, becoming a co-host in February 1991, at first temporarily when Norville had a baby, but later on in April 1991 on a more permanent basis when Norville left Today to spend time with her newborn baby. In 1992, she began working as a collaborator at Dateline NBC, where her reports appear regularly. She hosted or worked on a number of news specials: Everybody's Business: America's Children, in 1995 was a report on the state of children in the U.S. Katie Couric has filled in for Tom Brokaw on NBC Nightly News. Couric has also filled in for Garrick Utley on the Sunday Edition of NBC Nightly News from 1989 to 1992, and also for Maria Shriver on the Saturday Edition of NBC Nightly News in 1989.

Similar "specials" of a commercial or trivial aspect were Legend to Legend: A Celebrity Cavalgate in 1993, and Harry Potter: Behind the Magic in 1999.

Katie Couric hugs country music singer Keith UrbanCouric has interviewed many international political figures and celebrities during her career, including George H. W. Bush, his son George W. Bush, Barbara Bush, John Ramsey and his wife Patsy Ramsey, Trisha Meili (known as The Central Park Jogger), Bill Clinton and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. John F. Kennedy Jr. gave Couric his first and last interviews. In addition to that, Couric has won multiple television journalism awards through her career.

In a media crossover to animated film, she was the voice of news-reporter Katie Current in the film Shark Tale, in the U.S. version. Most non-U.S. versions use a different voice, but she is still credited. She also made a cameo appearance as a prison guard at Georgia State Prison in Austin Powers in Goldmember. She guest-starred as herself on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace in late 2002.

Couric's husband died of colon cancer in 1998 at the age of 42; today, she is a prominent spokeswoman for colon cancer awareness. She underwent a colonoscopy on the air in March 2000, and, according to a study published by Archives of Internal Medicine (July 14, 2003), inspired many others to get checked as well:

Katie Couric's televised colon cancer awareness campaign was temporarily associated with an increase in colonoscopy use in 2 different data sets. These findings suggest that a celebrity spokesperson can have a substantial impact on public participation in preventive care programs.
On October 7, 2005, Couric broadcast her own mammogram on the Today Show, in the hopes of recreating the "Couric Effect" around the issue of breast cancer. October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

KATIE COURIC PICTURES

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KATIE COURIC BIOGRAPHY