Andy Cohen Biography

Andrew Joseph "Andy" Cohen (born June 2, 1968) is an American talk show and radio host, author, and producer. Cohen hosts the Bravo nightly series Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. He is the first openly gay host of an American late-night talk show. After being head of development at Bravo for more than 10 years, Cohen resigned in November 2013. He continues to serve as an executive producer of The Real Housewives franchise.

Life and career

Cohen was born to a Jewish family in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Evelyn and Lou Cohen. He graduated from Clayton High School in 1986. As a child, Cohen attended Camp Nebagamon For Boys in Lake Nebagamon, Wisconsin. He is a graduate of Boston University, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in broadcast journalism. He interned at CBS News alongside Julie Chen, who was also working as an intern. He spent 10 years at CBS News, eventually serving as senior producer of The Early Show, a producer for 48 Hours and CBS This Morning, and becoming vice president of original programming for the cable network Trio in 2000. Cohen joined Bravo in 2004 when the network purchased Trio.

Cohen is a regular on Today and Morning Joe and has co-hosted Live! with Kelly, and The View. He has made various guest appearances on other talk shows. He has made several guest appearances on television shows playing himself, such as The Comeback and Saturday Night Live. On August 15, 2013, he declined to co-host the Miss Universe pageant in Russia, due to the country"?s recent adoption of anti-gay laws. Before that, he hosted Miss USA 2011, Miss USA 2012, Miss USA 2013, Miss Universe 2011, and Miss Universe 2012. On March 22, 2014, he appeared in Lady Gaga's music video for "G.U.Y."'. In 2015, he hosted Hollywood Game Night on NBC, and in 2017 he started hosting the Love Connection reboot on Fox.

Since 2015, Cohen has his own radio channel on SiriusXM called Radio Andy. The channel features Andy, Sandra Bernhard, Bevy Smith, Jim Parsons, Dan Rather, Jonathan Alter, John Benjamin Hickey, Jill Kargman, John Hill, and Amy Phillips on SiriusXM channel 102.

Cohen has partnered with Anderson Cooper on a national tour, AC2. They have toured more than 20 cities and raised more than $240,000 for the OneOrlando fund following the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting. In mid-2016, Cohen launched his own book imprint, Andy Cohen Books, under Henry Holt and Company. His third book, Superficial, was released in November 2016.

Awards and accolades

• Emmy Award, 2010, as Executive Producer of Outstanding Competitive Reality Series Top Chef
• In 2007, Cohen was named one of Multichannel News "40 Under 40" broadcasting executives.
• Peabody Award, 2004, as executive producer of the Trio documentary The N-Word. In December 2012, GQ named Cohen one of the 25 Best Dressed Men of the Year.
• Peabody Award, 2007, as executive producer of the Bravo reality-TV competition Project Runway.

In 2012, he was chosen as one of Broadcasting & Cable's "Digital All-Stars". In 2010, appeared on the TV Guide "Power List" of talked-about individuals.

He has been listed in Out magazine's list of Most Powerful Gay People, from 2012 to 2016.

Bibliography

Each became a New York Times Best Seller on the lists for, respectively, Paperback Nonfiction, Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction and books written by celebrities.