Soledad O'Brien

María de la Soledad Teresa O'Brien (born September 19, 1966) is an American broadcast journalist and executive producer. Currently, O'Brien is the anchor for Matter of Fact with Soledad O'Brien, a nationally syndicated weekly political show owned by Hearst Television. She is chairwoman of Starfish Media Group, a multi-platform media production company and distributor that she founded in 2013. O'Brien has appeared as a television anchor and correspondent on MSNBC, CNN, Al Jazeera America, and HBO. From 2003 to 2007, O'Brien co-anchored CNN's American Morning. From 2012 to 2013, O'Brien was the anchor of CNN's morning news program, Starting Point. In 2013, O'Brien became special correspondent on the Al Jazeera America news program, America Tonight. Also in 2013, O'Brien became a correspondent on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. 2Early life and education O'Brien was born and raised in St. James, New York, on the North Shore of Long Island to Edward O'Brien, a mechanical engineering professor at SUNY Stony Brook, and Estela O'Brien (née Marquetti y Mendieta), a French and English teacher at Smithtown High School West. Her parents were both immigrants and met while students at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Marylan