Anderson Cooper

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Lore & Background

Cooper was born in Manhattan, New York City, the younger son of writer Wyatt Emory Cooper and artist Gloria Vanderbilt. His maternal grandparents were millionaire equestrian Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt of the Vanderbilt family and socialite Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, and Reginald's patrilineal great-grandfather was business magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt. He has two older half-brothers, Leopold Stanislaus 'Stan' Stokowski (b. 1950) and Christopher Stokowski (b. 1952), from Gloria's ten-year marriage to conductor Leopold Stokowski. Cooper's media experience began early: as a baby, he was photographed by Diane Arbus for Harper's Bazaar; at age three, he was a guest on The Tonight Show on September 17, 1970, appearing with his mother; at age nine, he appeared on To Tell the Truth as an impostor; and from age 10 to 13, he modeled with Ford Models for Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and Macy's. His father died January 5, 1978, at age 50, and his older brother Carter Vanderbilt Cooper died by suicide on July 22, 1988, at age 23, which sparked Cooper's interest in journalism. After graduating from Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts in 1989, he began traveling the world, shooting footage of war-torn regions for Channel One News. Cooper was hired by ABC News as a correspondent in 1995, but he soon took more jobs throughout the network, working for a short time as a co-anchor, reality game show host, and fill-in morning talk show host. In 2001, Cooper joined CNN, where he was given his own show, Anderson Cooper 360°; he has remained the show's host since. His coverage of Hurricane Katrina caused his popularity to sharply increase. For his coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Cooper received a National Order of Honour and Merit, the highest honor granted by the Haitian government. From September 2011 to May 2013, he also served as the host of his own syndicated television daytime talk show, Anderson Live.

Reader's Guide

Anderson Cooper's significance lies in his long tenure as a leading cable news anchor and his role as a prominent openly gay journalist. His on-the-ground reporting of breaking news events, particularly Hurricane Katrina and the 2010 Haiti earthquake, defined his career and earned him major awards, including 18 Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards, and an Edward Murrow Award from the Overseas Press Club in 2011. By coming out as gay in 2012, he became 'the most prominent gay journalist on American television', and in 2016 he became the first LGBT person to moderate a presidential debate. His work has also been recognized with several GLAAD Media Awards. Cooper's coverage of Hurricane Katrina included confronting Sen. Mary Landrieu, Sen. Trent Lott, and the Reverend Jesse Jackson about their perception of the government response. As he later said, 'Yeah, I would prefer not to be emotional and I would prefer not to get upset, but it's hard not to when you're surrounded by brave people who are suffering and in need.' A contributor to Broadcasting & Cable wrote that Hurricane Katrina 'served to usher in a new breed of emo-journalism, skyrocketing CNN's Anderson Cooper to superstardom as CNN's golden boy.' Cooper has described his philosophy as an anchor: 'I think the notion of traditional anchor is fading away, the all-knowing, all-seeing person who speaks from on high. I don't think the audience really buys that anymore.'

Did You Know?

• As a baby, Cooper was photographed by Diane Arbus for Harper's Bazaar.
• At age three, Cooper appeared on The Tonight Show on September 17, 1970, with his mother.
• Cooper interned at the Central Intelligence Agency for two summers while studying political science at Yale.
• Cooper forged a press pass to enter Myanmar and report on students fighting the Burmese government.
• In 2014, Cooper learned through Finding Your Roots that he had an ancestor, Burwell Boykin, who was a slave owner.

A Childhood Forged by Grief and Privilege

Cooper was born in Manhattan in 1967, the younger son of writer Wyatt Emory Cooper and artist Gloria Vanderbilt. His maternal lineage stretches back to Cornelius Vanderbilt, the shipping and railroad magnate whose name still echoes through American business history. He grew up alongside two older half-brothers from Gloria's earlier marriage to conductor Leopold Stokowski. Media attention surrounded him from infancy: Diane Arbus photographed him for a fashion magazine, he appeared on The Tonight Show at age three, and between ten and thirteen he walked runways for Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein. Yet beneath that gilded surface, devastating loss shaped his inner life. His father died of a heart attack during open-heart surgery in 1978, when Anderson was eleven. Two years after his Yale graduation, his older brother Carter leapt from the fourteenth-floor terrace of the family penthouse in 1988. Cooper has reflected that this trauma ignited a lifelong preoccupation with survival and human endurance, a thread he says runs through everything he reports.

From Forged Press Passes to Front-Page Coverage

After earning his political science degree from Yale in 1989, Cooper struggled to break into broadcast journalism. He tried answering phones at ABC, was turned away, and eventually resorted to forging a press pass so he could enter Myanmar, where he met students opposing the Burmese government. He then spent a year in Vietnam studying the language at the University of Hanoi, filming cultural reports for Channel One, a youth-oriented news service. By 1992 he was shooting stories from Somalia, Bosnia, and Rwanda. The relentless exposure to violence gradually numbed him—dozens of bodies along a roadside felt almost routine—until a single image of a woman's peeling hand jolted him back to awareness. He joined ABC in 1995, cycling through co-anchoring, a reality game show, and morning talk before landing at CNN in 2001, where he was handed his own program, Anderson Cooper 360°, which he has hosted ever since.

In the Eye of the Storm

Cooper built his national reputation by throwing himself into the most chaotic breaking-news events. He followed that with equally intense coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, for which the Haitian government bestowed upon him the National Order of Honour and Merit, its highest civilian distinction. Between those defining moments he also anchored a syndicated daytime talk show, Anderson Live, from September 2011 through May 2013. His willingness to be physically present in disaster zones, rather than reporting from the safety of a studio, became his signature. That on-the-ground philosophy earned him eighteen Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards, and an Edward Murrow Award from the Overseas Press Club in 2011, cementing his standing as one of American television's most decorated correspondents.

Visibility, Representation, and a Broader Legacy

In 2012, Cooper publicly came out as gay, a moment that made him, by all accounts, the highest-profile openly gay journalist working on American television. His openness extended beyond personal disclosure into institutional milestones: in 2016 he became the first LGBT individual to moderate a U.S. presidential debate, placing him at the center of the nation's most watched political event. Over the years he has collected several GLAAD Media Awards for advancing LGBTQ representation in media. His professional accolades—eighteen Emmys, two Peabodys, and the Edward Murrow Award—sit alongside these cultural contributions, painting a portrait of a journalist whose impact stretches well beyond the newsroom. Cooper's trajectory, from a child of one of America's oldest fortunes to a self-made reporter who once forged his own press credentials, reflects a career defined by relentless curiosity and a refusal to stay behind the glass.