Betty Nguyen
Betty Nguyen is an award-winning journalist whose work has taken her across the globe anchoring and reporting for NBC, CBS, CNN and MSNBC. Her warmth, compassion and ability to ask the tough questions have established her as a trusted news authority covering the most important events of our time. Nguyen has interviewed countless newsmakers and celebrities, from presidents to the Dalai Lama. Nguyen's work has earned her numerous accolades including two Peabody Awards, an Alfred I. duPont Award and several Emmy Awards.
While anchoring at WPIX in New York City, she covered the terror attacks in lower Manhattan, the MeToo movement, the 2020 Presidential election, Governor Andrew Cuomo's resignation, and the Capital insurrection. She earned two Emmy Awards for "Best Morning Newscast" and "Social Media Interactivity."
Prior to that, Nguyen was an anchor for NBC News. She joined the network in 2013 as the anchor of Early Today on NBC, First Look on MSNBC, a correspondent for the Today Show and fill-in anchor for Weekend Today. In her roles, Nguyen covered the 2016 Presidential election, the Zika and Ebola outbreaks, the French terror attacks, the Boston Marathon bombing, the war in Syria, the election of Pope Francis and the death of Nelson Mandela.
Before joining NBC, Nguyen was the news anchor for CBS This Morning Saturday, anchored the CBS Morning News, and was an anchor and correspondent for The Early Show. She joined CBS News in 2010. While there, Nguyen covered the 2012 Presidential election, the 2011 earthquake in Japan, the death of Osama Bin Laden, the Royal wedding, the Arab spring and the 2010 Gulf oil spill.
In 2012, she took on the additional role of serving as Special Correspondent for Entertainment Tonight, reporting celebrity news and covering the People's Choice Awards.
Prior to CBS News, Nguyen anchored the weekend edition of CNN Newsroom. She began her career at the network in 2004.
Her contributions to the coverage of Hurricane Katrina and the tsunami in South Asia garnered CNN prestigious Peabody and Alfred I. duPont awards. Nguyen also anchored the network's coverage of numerous major news events, including the earthquakes in Chile and Haiti in 2010, the 2008 Presidential election that earned her a second Peabody award, Pope Benedict's first papal visit to the United States, the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, the death of Pope John Paul II in 2005, the London bombing attacks in July 2005, the Iraqi elections in January 2005 and the June 2004 handover of sovereignty to Iraq.
Nguyen traveled to Constitución, Mexico in 2009 to cover Hurricane Jimena. In 2008, she reported from Houston and Galveston, Texas during Hurricane Ike. Also that year, she went undercover in Myanmar for a series of exclusive reports that exposed a lack of aid after Cyclone Nargis killed more than 140,000 people. Nguyen traveled to Africa in 2007 to cover the presidential elections in Sierra Leone, the political and economic crises in Zimbabwe, and apartheid-era prosecutions in South Africa.
In September 2005, Nguyen reported and anchored from the Houston Astrodome, where thousands sought shelter after Hurricane Katrina. Later that month, she went on assignment in her birth country of Vietnam to cover the deadly flooding.
Prior to CNN, Nguyen was an anchor at KTVT-TV, the CBS affiliate in Dallas, where she covered numerous breaking news events, including the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. She also served as a freelance correspondent for E! Entertainment Television during the 2003 California gubernatorial election. Nguyen began her career as a morning anchor and reporter at KWTX-TV, the CBS affiliate in Waco, Texas.
Nguyen is a 2015 inductee into the Asian Hall of Fame. In 2007, the Smithsonian Institution recognized her as the first Vietnamese-American to anchor a national television news program in the United States. In 2003, Nguyen won a regional Emmy Award for "Outstanding Noon Newscast" and received an Associated Press Award in 1998 for breaking news coverage.
She is also the co-founder of Help the Hungry, a non-profit organization founded in 2001 to provide humanitarian aid to poverty-stricken families.
Nguyen graduated magna cum laude from the University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism. In 2008, she received the Outstanding Young Texas Ex Award. The Betty Nguyen Endowed Scholarship in Journalism was created in 2007 at her alma mater to assist students pursuing a career in broadcast journalism.
