Oprah Winfrey Biography

QUICK FACTS
Activities Actress , Executive Producer , Producer more
Real name Oprah Gail Winfrey
Nationality USA
Born January 29, 1954 (Kosciusko, Mississippi, United States.)

BIOGRAPHY
Oprah Gail Winfrey was born on January 29, 1954 in Kosciusko, Mississippi, USA. Daughter of Vernita Lee, a single mother, Oprah was raised by her grandmother, Hatti Mae Lee, with many needs and financial problems. She lived very alone, surrounded by farm animals, with whom she played. Her grandmother instilled religion and faith in God in her at a very early age. Ella Oprah recited poems and Bible verses in church in an extraordinary way for which she was nicknamed “The Little Speaker.”
She learned to read before she was three years old and always showed an extraordinary ability to read and write, this led her to be promoted several grades in school. At six years old she went to live with her mother, who worked as a domestic worker, so she was often left alone at home with her cousins. The little attention they gave her led her to misbehave and respond in a bad way, so her mother decided that the best place for the girl was with her father in Nashville, Tennessee. When Vernita becomes pregnant again, she asks the girl to return to Milwaukee to live with her and her stepsister. Oprah was sexually abused on multiple occasions starting at the age of nine, by her cousin, a family friend, her mother’s boyfriend, and her uncle; She never told anyone. At the age of thirteen she ran away from her home and as a result of the abuse she suffered, at the age of fourteen she became pregnant with a sick son who died shortly after birth. Her mother sent her back to live with her father in Nashville, Tennessee, he was very strict and made education Oprah’s number one priority.

Oprah attended Nashville East High School, was elected school president, and met with President Richard Nixon. She was rehearsing with her drama class her senior year of high school when a local radio station, WVOL, saw her and offered her a job reading news. She participated in a speech competition winning a scholarship to Tennessee State University, where she majored in Speech Communication and Performing Arts.
While she was studying in college she was offered a job as a co-anchor at the CBS television station, she refused several times until her speech teacher convinced her to participate. She was later offered a job in Baltimore, hosting a talk show called People Are Talking (1978) and after the first show she knew that was what she wanted to do for the rest of her life.

In 1981, she began participating in a Chicago talk show called AM Chicago, which in September 1985 was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show , becoming the first African-American woman to host a television show. The first broadcast of The Oprah Winfrey Show was on September 8, 1986 and aired nationally.
Her show soon became a success, addressing important issues such as gender equality, racism, poverty and many others, earning her many recognitions and awards, including the Emmy. Oprah began publishing a monthly magazine called O: The Oprah Magazine . The last Oprah Winfrey Show , in its twenty-fifth season, aired on May 25, 2011. Concluding a cycle in her career that she managed to inspire millions of people.

She made her debut as a film actress in 1985 in The Color Purple, playing a housewife named Sofia; this role earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In 1998 she starred in the film, Beloved , which she also produced. She acted in several films such as Charlotte’s Web (2006), Bee Movie (2007) and Tiana and the Frog (2009).

In 1998 she received the Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and in 2011 the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.