Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey (born Orpah Gail Winfrey on January 29, 1954) is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and media proprietor. Born in rural Mississippi and raised in both Milwaukee and Nashville, Tennessee, she began working in radio while still in high school and became a local television news co-anchor by age 19. Her early success in broadcast journalism led to a move into daytime talk television.

Winfrey is best known for The Oprah Winfrey Show, produced by her company Harpo Productions and based in Chicago. The program, which aired nationally from 1986 to 2011, became one of the most successful talk shows in American television history and helped define a more intimate, confessional style of media. She is widely credited with popularizing and reshaping the tabloid talk show format pioneered by Phil Donahue. In the mid-1990s, she shifted the show’s emphasis toward literature, self-improvement, spirituality, and mindfulness.

Beyond television, Winfrey has worked as an actress, including in The Color Purple and Selma, and has received two Academy Award nominations. She has also been a major media entrepreneur, founding the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) in 2008. Her influence has extended into politics and philanthropy; her endorsement of Barack Obama during the 2008 Democratic primaries was widely seen as significant, and in 2013 she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.