Natalie Morales

Natalie Morales-Rhodes (born Natalie Leticia Morales; June 6, 1972) is an American journalist working for NBC News. She is the Today Show West Coast anchor and appears on other programs including Dateline NBC and NBC Nightly News. In August 2016, after the Rio Summer Olympics, Morales moved to Los Angeles, where she became both the Today show's West Coast anchor, Billy Bush's replacement as host of Access Hollywood and Access Hollywood Live, while continuing as a correspondent for Dateline. 2Early lifeEdit Natalie Morales was born June 6, 1972 in Taiwan, to a Brazilian mother, Penelope, and a Puerto Rican father, Lieutenant Colonel Mario Morales, Jr. She speaks Spanish and Portuguese and spent the first eighteen years of her life living in America and overseas in Panama, Brazil, and Spain as a "U.S. Air Force brat". Morales holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rutgers University with dual majors in journalism and Latin American studies. She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and graduated Summa Cum Laude. 2CareerEdit Following college, Morales worked at Chase Bank before pursuing her journalism career. Morales served as a weekend anchor/reporter and morning co-anchor at WVIT-TV in Hartford, Connecticut, where she reported on the Columbine shootings, Hurricane Floyd, the 2000 Presidential election and the September 11, 2001 attacks. She also co-hosted and reported for the Emmy-nominated documentary, Save Our Sound, a joint production with WNBC on preserving the Long Island Soun