Andy Cohen
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Andy Cohen

TV Personality & Producer

b. June 2, 1968

“The one guiding principle over my 23-year career in TV has been as long as I’m having fun, I really don’t care what my job title is.”

Andy Cohen is a television and radio host, a writer, and a prolific producer known for successful Bravo reality TV franchises such as “The Real Housewives,” “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” “Project Runway,” and “Top Chef.” He became the first openly gay person to host an American late-night talk show with “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.”

Andrew Joseph Cohen was born to Jewish parents in St. Louis, Missouri. At an early age, he knew he wanted to work in television. In 1990, he earned a B.S. in broadcast journalism from Boston University. While there, he accidentally came out to his mother when she found a letter he intended for someone else.

After graduation, Cohen interned at CBS News, where he remained for the next decade. Starting as a news clerk, he rose through the ranks to produce shows such as “CBS This Morning,” “The Early Show,” and “48 Hours.”

In 2004, Cohen became vice president of original programming at Bravo, later serving as executive vice president of development and talent. In 2006, he began executive producing “The Real Housewives” and hosted reunion specials each season. He inadvertently publicly outed himself during the 2010 taping of one of those shows.

Since 2009, Cohen has hosted the midnight talk show, “Watch What Happens Live.” Initially airing weekly, the show expanded to a nightly format. He joined SiriusXM in 2015 and has two personally curated channels on which he hosts the hour-long program “Andy Cohen Live.”

Cohen regularly appears on popular daytime and late-night talk shows, has guest-starred as himself on multiple comedy series, including, “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” and has guest-hosted countless other programs. He is close friends with the broadcast journalist Anderson Cooper. They have co-hosted CNN’s “New Year’s Eve Live” since 2017-18. Cohen provides a witty and often controversial counterpoint to Cooper.

Among many honors, Cohen has received a Primetime Emmy, two Peabody Awards, and GLAAD’s Vito Russo Award. He has appeared on multiple power lists and was named one of Out magazine’s most influential LGBTQ people for five consecutive years.

Cohen has authored three memoirs: “Most Talkative: Stories from the Front Lines of Pop Culture” (2012), “The Andy Cohen Diaries: A Deep Look at a Shallow Year” (2014), and “Superficial: More Adventures from the Andy Cohen Diaries (2016)”— all New York Times best sellers. A proud single father, he lives with his son and daughter in Manhattan.