Anderson Cooper

Anderson Hays Cooper was born in New York City to writer Wyatt Emory Cooper and artist and designer Gloria Vanderbilt. He grew up in the public eye as a member of the Vanderbilt family. His father died while undergoing open-heart surgery in 1978, when Cooper was 10, and his older brother Carter Vanderbilt Cooper died by suicide in 1988.

Cooper attended the Dalton School and graduated from Yale University with a bachelor's degree in political science. He also studied Vietnamese at the University of Hanoi. While at Yale, he was a coxswain on the lightweight rowing team and spent two summers as an intern at the Central Intelligence Agency.

His early media experiences included being photographed by Diane Arbus as a baby, appearing on The Tonight Show with his mother at age three, and modeling for Ford Models from ages 10 to 13 for Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, and Macy's. At 17, he traveled through Africa, contracted malaria, and was hospitalized in Kenya.

After graduating from Yale, Cooper worked as a fact-checker for Channel One News, a youth-oriented program broadcast in American schools. Frustrated by his difficulty finding an on-air reporting job, he made a fake press pass and traveled independently to Myanmar, where he filmed reports about political turmoil and refugees.

Channel One bought the footage and promoted him to correspondent. He later studied Vietnamese in Hanoi and produced reports about life and culture in Vietnam. His assignments expanded to conflict zones and crisis areas including Bosnia, Iran, Israel, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, and the former Soviet Union.

Cooper's experiences covering violence shaped his approach to journalism. After reporting on the Rwandan genocide, he recognized that repeated exposure to death had made him emotionally numb and resolved to regain a sense of perspective in his work.

Cooper joined ABC News as a correspondent in the mid-1990s after his work at Channel One. He reported for programs including World News Tonight, 20/20, and 20/20 Downtown, and later became a co-anchor of the overnight program World News Now.

In 2000, Cooper left news reporting temporarily to host ABC's reality competition program The Mole. He returned to journalism after the September 11 attacks, explaining that two seasons of the reality show were enough and that he wanted to get back to covering the news.

His work at ABC included international reporting and coverage of major political and public events. Earlier in his career, he received an Emmy Award for his contribution to ABC's coverage of Princess Diana's funeral.

Cooper joined CNN in 2001 as a weekend anchor and reporter. He covered the war in Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks, reported on the war in Iraq, and moved into a prominent prime-time role. On September 8, 2003, he became the anchor of Anderson Cooper 360°, the CNN program most closely associated with his career.

His reporting on the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 sharply increased his public profile. He also covered the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, receiving Haiti's National Order of Honour and Merit for his reporting. In 2016, Cooper and Martha Raddatz moderated the second presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, making him the first openly gay journalist to moderate a general-election presidential debate.

Cooper became a correspondent for CBS's 60 Minutes in the 2006-2007 season while continuing to work for CNN. His assignments for the program earned major journalism recognition, including Emmy and Peabody Awards. In 2026, he announced that he would leave his reporting role on 60 Minutes after two decades.

Cooper also hosted Anderson Live, a syndicated daytime talk show that ran from 2011 to 2013, and served as a guest host of Jeopardy! in 2021. He has co-hosted CNN's New Year's Eve coverage with Andy Cohen, and the pair developed the touring conversational stage show AC2.

Cooper's memoir Dispatches from the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival was published in 2006 and drew on his reporting from places including Sri Lanka, Africa, Iraq, and Louisiana. The book reached the top of The New York Times Best Seller list.

In 2016, Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt co-authored The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son on Life, Love, and Loss. The book was built from their correspondence and reflected on family history, grief, and their relationship. Cooper later co-authored Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty with Katherine Howe in 2021.

Cooper launched the podcast All There Is in 2022. The series explores grief and bereavement through conversations with guests including Stephen Colbert, Laurie Anderson, and Molly Shannon. It won the 2023 Webby Award for Best Series, and Cooper was honored as its Best Host.

Cooper publicly identified as gay in 2012 after years of keeping his private life separate from his reporting. His announcement described his decision to be open about his identity as a matter of personal and professional principle. In 2014, Apple CEO Tim Cook sought Cooper's advice before publicly coming out as gay.

Cooper was in a relationship with Benjamin Maisani, and the pair purchased a historic estate in Connecticut in 2014. Cooper confirmed their separation in 2018. They later co-parented Cooper's children.

Cooper announced the birth of his first son, Wyatt Morgan Cooper, in April 2020. Wyatt was born through surrogacy and was named after Cooper's father, while Morgan is a family name connected to Gloria Vanderbilt. In 2022, Cooper announced the birth of his second son, Sebastian Luke Maisani-Cooper.