Maddow, Rachel

Rachel Maddow (born April 1, 1973) is an American political commentator and cable news anchor and, until recently, a radio talk show host. She is known for her liberal political leanings and acerbic wit as host of The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC TV, a role she has had since September 2008. Maddow's relationship with MSNBC began in 2005 when she became a regular contributor to The Situation With Tucker Carlson. She was also a regular commentator and occasional guest host on Race for the White House With David Gregory and a frequent guest and sometime guest host on Countdown With Keith Olbermann. She was on the air with Air America Radio from its inception in spring 2004 through 2010, first on “Unfiltered” with Lizz Winstead (cocreator of The Daily Show) and Chuck D (of hip-hop group Public Enemy), and then with her own eponymous show. Her first job hosting a radio show came after she entered and won a contest sponsored by WRNX in Holyoke, Massachusetts, to find a new on-air personality. WRNX hired her to cohost the popular The Dave in the Morning Show. In 2002 she joined WRSI in Northampton, Massachusetts as a morning show host.

Before Maddow began her career in broadcasting, she earned a B.A. in public policy from Stanford University in 1994. After graduation, she received a Rhodes scholarship and began studying at Lincoln College at Oxford University in 1995. She graduated with a D. Phil. in politics in 2001 after completing a dissertation titled “HIV/AIDS and Health Care Reform in British and American Prisons.”