Amanpour, Christiane

Christiane Amanpour, CNN's former chief international correspondent and host of the news show Amanpour, is one of the highest-paid, most recognized women in television news worldwide, following her more than two decades at CNN, spent covering nearly every major conflict, disaster, and event of [Page 57]global significance. She has produced many in-depth documentaries for CNN, including God's Warriors, about the three largest monotheistic religions, and Where Have All the Parents Gone?, about children orphaned by AIDS. Amanpour also held a contract with CBS from 1996 to 2005, providing five stories each year to the news show 60 Minutes.

Amanpour was born January 12, 1958, in London to a British, Catholic mother and a Muslim, Iranian father. Shortly afterward, the family moved to Tehran, where Amanpour's father was an airline executive. Amanpour has said that she and her three younger sisters had a privileged childhood. She began attending Catholic boarding schools in England when she was 11 years old. Her worldview changed drastically, however, when in 1979, her family was forced to flee Iran and her uncle died during the Islamic Revolution. At the time, Amanpour had been struggling to choose a career path. Although she had hoped to become a physician, she did not have the grades. Her younger sister had withdrawn suddenly from a journalism program, and when the school refused to refund the tuition, Amanpour enrolled in her sister's place. After completing the program, Amanpour moved to Providence to study journalism at the University of Rhode Island. During summer vacations in England, she worked for BBC Radio's The World Tonight. In Providence, Amanpour held an internship, working as a reporter, anchor, and producer with WBRU-Radio and working briefly as an electronic graphics designer for NBC-affiliate WJAR-TV.

Amanpour graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor of arts from the University of Rhode Island in 1983 and applied for a job at an organization that was nearly as new to journalism as she was-CNN. She was hired as a desk assistant and arrived in Atlanta with a bicycle, about $100, and a plan to become a foreign correspondent. When Amanpour was told that she was not broadcast material-her hair was too dark, her name too hard to pronounce, and her accent too foreign-she replied, “Just you wait.” Today, she tells students and aspiring journalists to find their way around the many “nos” they are likely to encounter at the start of their own careers.

In 1985, just two years after starting at CNN, Amanpour helped the network with its series, “Iran: In the Name of God,” which won CNN its first Dupont Award. In 1989, Amanpour applied for an opening at CNN's bureau in Frankfurt, Germany, where she began as an international correspondent before volunteering to cover the Persian Gulf War. Amanpour quickly became known for her willingness to take physical and professional risks, continually placing herself and her sources in uncomfortable situations. Former president Bill Clinton did not hide his anger after Amanpour asked him, on camera, how he could “flip-flop” on the situation in Bosnia, and former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat hung up during a live interview after she asked him a pointed question about suicide bombings.

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