Christiane Amanpour's Biography
— -- Christiane Amanpour is the anchor of ABC's Sunday morning political affairs program, "This Week with Christiane Amanpour," which premiered on August 1, 2010. In addition to her anchoring role, she provides international analysis of the important issues of the day on ABC News' other programs and platforms and anchors primetime documentaries on international subjects.
Ms. Amanpour joined ABC from CNN, where she was most recently the network's Chief International Correspondent and anchor of "Amanpour," a daily half-hour interview program. Upon becoming an international correspondent for CNN in 1990, her first major assignment was covering the Gulf War. She has since reported on and from the world's major hot spots including Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Somalia, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Rwanda, the Balkans, and the U.S. during Hurricane Katrina. After 9/11 she was the first international correspondent to secure interviews with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President Jacques Chirac, and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. She has interviewed other world leaders from Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, including Iranian Presidents Mohammad Khatami and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as well as the presidents of Afghanistan, Sudan, Syria, and Palestinian leader Yassar Arafat among others.
Ms. Amanpour has received every major broadcast award, including an inaugural Television Academy Award, nine News and Documentary Emmys, four George Foster Peabody Awards, two George Polk Awards, three duPont-Columbia Awards, the Courage in Journalism Award, an Edward R. Murrow award, and nine honorary degrees.
In October, 2010 she will be inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was also made a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for her "highly distinguished, innovative contribution" to the field of journalism. In 1998, the city of Sarajevo named her an honorary citizen for her coverage of the Bosnia war.
Ms. Amanpour was born in London and spent part of her childhood in Tehran, Iran. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Rhode Island with a bachelor of arts in journalism.
