Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Gail Winfrey
(Lady O, Deepak Oprah – a send up of Deepak Chopra, a self-help guru)
29 January 1954, Kosciusko, Mississippi, USA
Nationality: United States of America
Category: Celebrities
Occupation: TV personalities, Philanthropists
Unique distinction: First African-American woman to become a billionaire in American history. The host of TV’s Oprah. Residence Chicago, Illinois, United States
Height: 5′ 6½” (1.69 m).
Salary: $385 million (2008).
Gender: Female
(Lady O, Deepak Oprah – a send up of Deepak Chopra, a self-help guru)
29 January 1954, Kosciusko, Mississippi, USA
Nationality: United States of America
Category: Celebrities
Occupation: TV personalities, Philanthropists
Unique distinction: First African-American woman to become a billionaire in American history. The host of TV’s Oprah. Residence Chicago, Illinois, United States
Height: 5′ 6½” (1.69 m).
Salary: $385 million (2008).
Gender: Female
Oprah Quotes:
1. The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams.
2. I trust that everything happens for a reason, even if we are not wise enough to see it.
3. Surround yourself only with people who are going to take you higher.
4. Turn your wounds into wisdom.
5. You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.
6. Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment. Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more.
7. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.
8. You don’t become what you want, you become what you believe.
9. Think like a queen. A queen if not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.
10. We can’t become what we need to be by remaining what we are.
11. Follow your instincts. That’s where true wisdom manifests itself.
12. Understand that the right to choose your own path is a sacred privilege. Use it. Dwell in possibility.
13. I feel that luck is a preparation meeting opportunity.
14. The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.
Video: Oprah and Aniston
Website: Oprah.com
Achievements and contributions:
Social and professional position: Oprah Gail Winfrey is an American television host, producer, philanthropist and the most successful female talk show host in American TV history.
The main contribution to (what is known): She is best known for her self-titled, multi-award winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history. She is the greatest African American philanthropist in American history.
Contributions: Her accomplishments as a television pioneer, producer, publisher, educator, and philanthropist have established her as one of the most respected and admired public figures today.
Also a talented actress, in 1985 she made her movie debut in The Color Purple (based on the Alice Walker book) and was nominated for an Oscar.
Oprah was so successful that subsequently built a media empire. In 1988 she established Harpo Studio, a production company responsible for numerous telefilms and movies.
In September 1996 Winfrey started an “Oprah’s Book Club,” on-air reading club with a focus on literature, self-improvement, and spirituality.
In 1999 she established Oxygen Media, which produces women’s programs on cable television and the Internet. In 2000 she joined Hearst Corp. in creating O: The Oprah Magazine, a monthly women’s lifestyle publication.
Philanthropy.
Oprah has been ranked the richest African American billionaire and philanthropist in American history.
Her Net worth is US$ 3.1 billion (2015).
By 2012 she had given away about $400 million to educational causes. She donated $12 million to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (2013).
Honours and Awards: Dubbed the “Queen of All Media”. Oprah was accepted into the NAACP Image Award Hall of Fame (1989). She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama (2013) and honorary doctorate degrees from Duke and Harvard.
Major works: 1994 – Co-wrote the book “Oprah Winfrey: The Real Story” by George Mair. In the movies: The Color Purple (1985), Native Son (12-Dec-1986) and Beloved (1998). Christmas at Pee Wee’s Playhouse (1988), Herself Throw Momma from the Train (11-Dec-1987), Herself Ocean’s Thirteen (24-May-2007).
The main contribution to (what is known): She is best known for her self-titled, multi-award winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history. She is the greatest African American philanthropist in American history.
Contributions: Her accomplishments as a television pioneer, producer, publisher, educator, and philanthropist have established her as one of the most respected and admired public figures today.
Also a talented actress, in 1985 she made her movie debut in The Color Purple (based on the Alice Walker book) and was nominated for an Oscar.
Oprah was so successful that subsequently built a media empire. In 1988 she established Harpo Studio, a production company responsible for numerous telefilms and movies.
In September 1996 Winfrey started an “Oprah’s Book Club,” on-air reading club with a focus on literature, self-improvement, and spirituality.
In 1999 she established Oxygen Media, which produces women’s programs on cable television and the Internet. In 2000 she joined Hearst Corp. in creating O: The Oprah Magazine, a monthly women’s lifestyle publication.
Philanthropy.
Oprah has been ranked the richest African American billionaire and philanthropist in American history.
Her Net worth is US$ 3.1 billion (2015).
By 2012 she had given away about $400 million to educational causes. She donated $12 million to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (2013).
Honours and Awards: Dubbed the “Queen of All Media”. Oprah was accepted into the NAACP Image Award Hall of Fame (1989). She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama (2013) and honorary doctorate degrees from Duke and Harvard.
Major works: 1994 – Co-wrote the book “Oprah Winfrey: The Real Story” by George Mair. In the movies: The Color Purple (1985), Native Son (12-Dec-1986) and Beloved (1998). Christmas at Pee Wee’s Playhouse (1988), Herself Throw Momma from the Train (11-Dec-1987), Herself Ocean’s Thirteen (24-May-2007).
Career and personal life:
Family Background: She was born on an isolated farm in Kosciusko, Mississippi, on January 29, 1954. Her name was supposed to be Orpah, after the Biblical character in the Book of Ruth, but because of the difficulty of spelling and pronunciation, she was known as Oprah almost from birth.
Her mother, Vernita Lee, was a housemaid, and her father, Vernon Winfrey, was a coal miner and later worked as a barber before becoming a city councilman. Winfrey’s father was in the Armed Forces when she was born.
Winfrey’s unmarried parents separated soon after she was born and left her in the care of her maternal grandmother on the farm.
As a child, Winfrey entertained herself by “playacting” in front of an “audience” of farm animals. Under the strict guidance of her grandmother, she learned to read at two and a half years old. She addressed her church congregation about “when Jesus rose on Easter Day” when she was two years old.
Education: Her grandmother taught her to read before the age of three and took her to the local church, where she recited Bible verses. She began going to Lincoln High School and later was transferred to the affluent suburban Nicolet High School. Her Alma mater was Tennessee State University.
Career highlights: She began her career as a Nashville radio reporter at age 17, worked in television news. At 19 she was offered a job at CBS. She was Nashville’s first black female on the evening news
Winfrey moved to Chicago, Illinois, in January 1984 and took over as anchor on A.M. Chicago, a morning talk show that was consistently last in the ratings.
In September 1985 the program, renamed the Oprah Winfrey Show, was expanded to one hour.
The show was a smash hit and within a decade she was one of the richest women in the United States. With its placement on 120 channels and an audience of 10 million people, the show grossed $125 million by the end of its first year, of which Winfrey received $30 million. The Oprah Winfrey Show won 8 Emmys for Best Talk Show, and Winfrey was honoured as Best Talk Show Host.
Her understanding of the show business laws, knowledge of psychology, based on rich experience, her communicative talent, charm, and warm-hearted, the unpretentious style made Oprah one of the most influential, admired and successful women in the world.
Winfrey renewed her contract with King World Productions to continue The Oprah Winfrey Show through the 2003–2004 television season.
She announced in November of 2009 that she would end her TV show when her contract ended in 2011.
Her occupations: Former host of The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986 – 2011), Chairwoman and CEO of Harpo Productions, Chairwoman, CEO, and CCO of the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).
The Oprah Winfrey Network launched on January 1, 2011. It boasts a variety of new popular shows.
She was a producer of the comedy-drama film The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014) with Helen Mirren and British-American historical drama film Selma (2014), which had four Golden Globe Award nominations.
Personal life: At twelve years old she was sent to live with her father in Nashville, Tennessee. Feeling secure and happy for a brief period she began making speeches at social gatherings and churches, and one time earned five hundred dollars for a speech. She knew then that she wanted to be “paid to talk.”
Two times at six and thirteen years old Winfrey was sent north to join her mothers in a Milwaukee ghetto, an extremely poor and dangerous neighbourhood. She experienced considerable hardship during her childhood, including sexual abuse by her cousin, her uncle at the age of nine. She became pregnant at 14 and her son died in infancy.
When Winfrey has returned to her father, she stated that he saved her life. Winfrey became an excellent student, participating as well in the drama club, debate club, and student council.
In an Elks Club speaking contest, she won a full scholarship to Tennessee State University. In 1972 she won the “Miss Black Tennessee” and in 1976 Graduated from Tennessee State University. In 1987 she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech and Drama from Tennessee State University.
Winfrey has no surviving biological children showed her maternal feelings towards the girls at Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls: “Winfrey later confirmed to Larry King that she now felt like she was the mother of 151 girls. But, according to Winfrey, none of her achievements makes her more proud than the two schools she opened for South Africa’s neediest girls.
She has raised and personally donated millions of dollars to victims of poverty and disease and openly speaks about her own experience with sexual abuse as a child. Winfrey and her partner Stedman Graham have been together since 1986.They were engaged to be married in November 1992, but the ceremony never took place.
Zest: The genetic test determined that her maternal line originated among the Kpelle ethnic group, in the area that today is Liberia.
Raised in abject poverty, she received her first pair of shoes in 1959 at age 6. Winfrey, who became almost as well-known for her weight loss efforts as for her talk show, lost an estimated 90 pounds (dropping to her ideal weight of around 150 pounds) Chosen by “People” magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World in 1997.
Her mother, Vernita Lee, was a housemaid, and her father, Vernon Winfrey, was a coal miner and later worked as a barber before becoming a city councilman. Winfrey’s father was in the Armed Forces when she was born.
Winfrey’s unmarried parents separated soon after she was born and left her in the care of her maternal grandmother on the farm.
As a child, Winfrey entertained herself by “playacting” in front of an “audience” of farm animals. Under the strict guidance of her grandmother, she learned to read at two and a half years old. She addressed her church congregation about “when Jesus rose on Easter Day” when she was two years old.
Education: Her grandmother taught her to read before the age of three and took her to the local church, where she recited Bible verses. She began going to Lincoln High School and later was transferred to the affluent suburban Nicolet High School. Her Alma mater was Tennessee State University.
Career highlights: She began her career as a Nashville radio reporter at age 17, worked in television news. At 19 she was offered a job at CBS. She was Nashville’s first black female on the evening news
Winfrey moved to Chicago, Illinois, in January 1984 and took over as anchor on A.M. Chicago, a morning talk show that was consistently last in the ratings.
In September 1985 the program, renamed the Oprah Winfrey Show, was expanded to one hour.
The show was a smash hit and within a decade she was one of the richest women in the United States. With its placement on 120 channels and an audience of 10 million people, the show grossed $125 million by the end of its first year, of which Winfrey received $30 million. The Oprah Winfrey Show won 8 Emmys for Best Talk Show, and Winfrey was honoured as Best Talk Show Host.
Her understanding of the show business laws, knowledge of psychology, based on rich experience, her communicative talent, charm, and warm-hearted, the unpretentious style made Oprah one of the most influential, admired and successful women in the world.
Winfrey renewed her contract with King World Productions to continue The Oprah Winfrey Show through the 2003–2004 television season.
She announced in November of 2009 that she would end her TV show when her contract ended in 2011.
Her occupations: Former host of The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986 – 2011), Chairwoman and CEO of Harpo Productions, Chairwoman, CEO, and CCO of the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).
The Oprah Winfrey Network launched on January 1, 2011. It boasts a variety of new popular shows.
She was a producer of the comedy-drama film The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014) with Helen Mirren and British-American historical drama film Selma (2014), which had four Golden Globe Award nominations.
Personal life: At twelve years old she was sent to live with her father in Nashville, Tennessee. Feeling secure and happy for a brief period she began making speeches at social gatherings and churches, and one time earned five hundred dollars for a speech. She knew then that she wanted to be “paid to talk.”
Two times at six and thirteen years old Winfrey was sent north to join her mothers in a Milwaukee ghetto, an extremely poor and dangerous neighbourhood. She experienced considerable hardship during her childhood, including sexual abuse by her cousin, her uncle at the age of nine. She became pregnant at 14 and her son died in infancy.
When Winfrey has returned to her father, she stated that he saved her life. Winfrey became an excellent student, participating as well in the drama club, debate club, and student council.
In an Elks Club speaking contest, she won a full scholarship to Tennessee State University. In 1972 she won the “Miss Black Tennessee” and in 1976 Graduated from Tennessee State University. In 1987 she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech and Drama from Tennessee State University.
Winfrey has no surviving biological children showed her maternal feelings towards the girls at Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls: “Winfrey later confirmed to Larry King that she now felt like she was the mother of 151 girls. But, according to Winfrey, none of her achievements makes her more proud than the two schools she opened for South Africa’s neediest girls.
She has raised and personally donated millions of dollars to victims of poverty and disease and openly speaks about her own experience with sexual abuse as a child. Winfrey and her partner Stedman Graham have been together since 1986.They were engaged to be married in November 1992, but the ceremony never took place.
Zest: The genetic test determined that her maternal line originated among the Kpelle ethnic group, in the area that today is Liberia.
Raised in abject poverty, she received her first pair of shoes in 1959 at age 6. Winfrey, who became almost as well-known for her weight loss efforts as for her talk show, lost an estimated 90 pounds (dropping to her ideal weight of around 150 pounds) Chosen by “People” magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World in 1997.
