The Biography, History And Net Worth of Oprah Winfrey

Orpah Gail Winfrey popularly known as Oprah Winfrey is a famous American businesswoman, investor, entrepreneur, media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and a philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show at The Oprah Winfrey Show, which was the highest-rated television program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011 in Chicago, Illinois in the United States of America. She is currently the chairwoman and chief executive officer CEO of Harpo Productions and Oprah Winfrey Network.

She was born on 29^th January 1954 in Kosciusko, Mississippi in the United States of America. She is currently 64 years old. She has been dubbed as the Queen of All Media. She is currently the richest African American woman of the 20^th century and North America’s first multi-billionaire black person. She has been ranked as the greatest black philanthropist in American history. She has also been ranked by several media organization as the most influential woman in the world.

Oprah Winfrey was born into a poor family in rural Mississippi to a teenage single mother and later raised in an inner-city of Milwaukee neighborhood. However, during an interview she stated that she was molested during her childhood and early teens and became pregnant at the age of 14 years old. She gave birth in 1968 and unfortunately, her son named Canaan died in infancy in 1968. After the death of her child, she was sent to live with the man she calls her father, by the name Vernon Winfrey, who happens to be a barber in Tennessee in the United States of America.

Oprah Winfrey attended Nicolet High School in Kosciusko, Mississippi in the United States of America. After which she proceeded to East Literature Magnet School in Kosciusko, Mississippi in the United States of America for her college education. After completing her high school and college education, Oprah Winfrey proceeded to Tennessee State University in the United States of America and graduated in 1976.

While still in high school, Oprah Winfrey landed a job in radio and began co-anchoring the local evening news at the age of 19 years old. Her emotional ad-lib delivery eventually got her transferred to the daytime talk show arena, and after boosting a third-rated local Chicago talk show to first place, she launched her own media production company and became internationally syndicated.

By the mid 1990s, Oprah Winfrey had already reinvented her show with a focus on literature, self-improvement and spirituality. Unfortunately, she was heavily criticized for unleashing a confession culture, promoting controversial self help ideas and having an overly emotion-centered approach. Aside from been criticized, she was also praised for overcoming adversity to become a benefactor to others.

In 1993, Oprah Winfrey hosted a celebrity interview with pop legend late Michael Jackson, which became the fourth most-watched event in American television history as well as the most watched interview ever, with an audience of 36.5 million. On 1^stDecember 2005, Oprah Winfrey appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman to promote the new Broadway musical “The Color Purple” a show of which she was also a producer and which was hosted for the first time in 16 years.

The episode was hailed by some as the “television event of the decade” and helped Letterman attract an estimated number 13.45 million viewers, which happens to be his largest audience in more than 11 years. On 10^th September 2007, Letterman made his first appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, as its season premiere was filmed in New York City in the United States of America.

Oprah Winfrey has been described arguably as the world’s most powerful woman by CNN and Time Magazine. She has also been described arguably as the most influential woman in the world by The American Spectator. She has also been described as one of the 100 people who have influenced the 20^th century and also one of the most influential people from 2004 to 2011 by Time Magazine. Oprah Winfrey is the only person in the world to have appeared in the latter list on ten occasions.

At the end of the 20th century, Life Magazine listed her as the most influential woman in America, America’s most powerful woman and the most influential black person of her generation. In 2007, USA Today ranked her as the most influential woman and most influential black person of the previous quarter-century. Ladies Home Journal also ranked her as the number one in their list of the most powerful women in America.