Rafer Weigel

Rafer Brian Weigel (born May 5, 1969) is the sports anchor for CNN Headline News’ "Morning Express with Robin Meade".
The show is broadcast out of CNN’s headquarters in Atlanta, from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. eastern time.

Background

Weigel grew up in a journalism household in Chicago—the son of the late legendary sports anchor and newspaper columnist, Tim Weigel and former WGN-Radio news anchor Kathy Worthington. He is the grandson of Weigel Broadcasting founder and former Lawrence Welk radio announcer, John Jacob Weigel.Rafer has two sisters; Jenniffer, a former Chicago television news anchor and published author and Teddi, who began high school in 2008. Rafer has been married to photographer Tiffany Weigel since June 2002.

Growing up, Weigel regularly spent time in the company of some of Chicago’s most esteemed journalists and personalities including columnist Mike Royko, radio legends Studs Terkel and Steve Dahl, movie critics Gene Siskel and Richard Roeper, and others.His father Tim began his career as a newspaper beat writer and eventually became one of the most popular sports anchors in Chicago television history before he died from cancer at the age of 55.Rafer decided to follow in his father's footsteps after his passing in 2001. CNN Headline News answered that call when it hired him in early 2008.

Education

Rafer graduated from Evanston Township High School in 1987 where he started performing on stage with the Piven Theatre Workshop’s Young People’s company which featured such notables as John Cusack, Joan Cusack and Jeremy Piven. He worked summers as an intern for his father at WLS-TV.Rafer continued his education at The University of Illinois in Champaign, graduating with a degree in Theatre in 1992 after finishing his studies in London.

Acting Career

Rafer’s first acting job was with Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre as the title role in “Master Harold…and the boys” and worked with others such as The Wisdom Bridge, Bailiwick, and Organic theatres. His first television role was a small part on the locally-filmed TV show “The Untouchables”. In 1993, Rafer was hired for a news magazine show featuring younger journalists and brought out to Hollywood. Shortly thereafter, Weigel was hired as an on-camera host for VH1 where he joined now fellow Headline News anchor A.J. Hammer. In 1995, Weigel returned to Hollywood landing small speaking roles on ER and Party of Five, and guest starring on JAG, Charmed, and the former Vengeance Unlimited. In 1997, Weigel was hired as a series regular on the NBC sitcom Jenny, starring former fellow Chicagoan Jenny McCarthy. The series lasted only one season. Soon thereafter, Weigel began his film career in the lead role opposite William Shatner and Eric McCormack in the cult movie Free Enterprise and then alongside Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen in the Showtime film Rated X.

Journalism Career

When his father died on Father’s Day in 2001, he began his pursuit of a career in journalism and returned to Chicago. He wrote an essay after his father’s death that ran in the Chicago Sun-Times that opened the door for him as a freelance writer covering high school sports. Weigel covered games all over the Chicago area and wrote regular features on local high school athletes. He also hosted a weekly radio show on WCKG called “Celebrity Rock.” A year later, he and his wife, Tiffany, relocated back to Los Angeles, where he worked as a clerk in the sports department at The Los Angeles Times. He began writing articles for The Times on a freelance basis and a year later was hired full-time as a high school sports staff writer.

TV Career

Weigel’s first on-camera journalism job came in 2005 as a freelance reporter for KUSI in San Diego for the weekend morning show—doing live remotes at events as well as covering breaking news. He commuted between Los Angeles and San Diego—working nights at The L.A. Times and mornings for the TV station. In February, 2006 he was hired by the CBS owned and operated station KOVR in Sacramento as a general assignment reporter where he covered breaking news, politics and national stories like the Tahoe wildfires and wayward whales Delta and Dawn.

Headline News

In February 2008, Rafer joined the cast of the already-successful morning show The Morning Express with Robin Meade. Rafer and the CNN Sports team extensively covered the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

References

External Links

* [http://www.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/weigel.rafer.html Profile on CNN.com]
* [http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/morning.express/ Morning Express with Robin Meade]
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0917838/ Rafer Weigel At IMDB]