Julie Chen

Infobox Celebrity
name = Julie Chen
bgcolour = #9966ff


caption =
birthname = Julie Suzanne Chen
birth_date = birth date and age|1970|1|6
birth_place = Queens, New York, U.S.
death_date =
death_place =
occupation = TV presenter, News anchor, producer
salary =
networth =
spouse = Leslie Moonves
children =
website = [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/05/16/earlyshow/bios/main509336.shtml Official CBS Bio]
footnotes =

Julie Suzanne Chen (born January 6, 1970) is an American television personality, news anchor, journalist, and producer for CBS. She has 12 years of newscasting experience. She is best known for co-anchoring CBS's "The Early Show", alongside Harry Smith and Maggie Rodriguez. She has been the host of the U.S. version of "Big Brother" since its debut in July 2000.

Chen's mother grew up in Rangoon, Burma, where Chen's grandfather was a leading industrialist. Her father was born in China and was one of the top leaders in the Kuomintang government of Chiang Kai-shek. Consequently, her family moved everywhere in China, eventually fleeing to Taiwan. Chen was born in Queens, New York.

Chen attended Junior High School 194 in Queens, where she was voted "Most Intelligent and Most Likely to Succeed." She graduated high school in 1987 from St. Francis Prep after having missed the cutoff scores for specialized high school entrance exams for schools like the Bronx High School of Science, the school her older sisters attended. She attended the University of Southern California and graduated in 1991 with a major in broadcast journalism and in English. One of her earlier jobs came in June of 1989, at "CBS Morning News"--the series which she would anchor a decade later--where she answered phones and copied faxes for distribution. The following year, while still in school, she worked for ABC NewsOne for one season as a desk assistant. She was subsequently promoted to work as a producer for the next three years. The following year, she traveled to Dayton, Ohio to work as a newsanchor for WDTN-TV, from 1995 to 1997.

From 1999 to 2002, Chen was the anchor of both early-morning shows, "CBS Morning News" & "The Early Show", alongside Bryant Gumbel and Jane Clayson. Since 2002, she has been a co-host for "The Early Show" on CBS. Before CBS News she was a reporter and weekend anchor at WCBS-TV in New York City.

Since 2000, she has also been the host of the American version of "Big Brother". During the first season (2000), Chen was widely criticized in the media for her heavily scripted, wooden delivery in her interaction with the studio audience and in the interviews on the live programs, earning her the nickname "Chenbot" among the Internet and many fans. She has indicated in two separate interviews [cite web|url = http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1200092,00.html|title =Big Shot|publisher = Entertainment Weekly] , [cite web|url = http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117947499.html?categoryid=14&cs=1&s=h&p=0|title =Inside Move: Mugs don't bug Chen|publisher = Variety Magazine] that she takes no personal offense to the term, adding that it may derive from her "precise on-air style" which comes from "a desire to be objective."

She again acknowledged the nickname while discussing mugs made in her liking when she proudly proclaimed, "I am the Chenbot!" in a segment [cite web|url = http://www.tvgasm.com/movies/clipgasm/2006/august/chenbotastic.mov|title =The Early Show|publisher = CBS] on the CBS Early Show.

On December 23, 2004, she married Leslie Moonves, president and CEO of CBS Television. Moonves is 22 years her senior.

External links

* [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/05/16/earlyshow/bios/main509336.shtml Official CBS Bio]
* [http://www.nndb.com/people/229/000026151/ Julie Chen] at NNDB
* [http://web.archive.org/web/19970605082117/www.wdtn.com/julie.html Archived biography of Chen from one of her first reporting jobs.]
* [http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,1200092_3_0_,00.html Interview with Entertainment Weekly discussing Chen, including her opinion on her nickname "The Chenbot."]

References