Hoda Kotb Biography

Hoda Kotb (  ; born August 9, 1964) is an American television news anchor and TV host known as the co-host of the fourth hour of Today with Kathie Lee Gifford. She won a Daytime Emmy Award in 2010 as part of The Today Show team. She is also a correspondent for NBC's Dateline NBC.

Life

Kotb was born in Norman, Oklahoma, but grew up in Morgantown, West Virginia. Her parents are from Egypt. Kotb and her family lived in Egypt for a year, as well as Nigeria. In Arabic, the name "Hoda" means "guidance", and is very popular among Arab women. The surname "Kotb" means "pole", as in North or South Pole, and is a common surname among Egyptians. For a period during her career, she spelled her surname Kotbe to aid in pronunciation; she has since reverted to using the original form, Kotb.

In 1986, she graduated from Virginia Tech with a Bachelor of Arts degree in broadcast journalism. She is a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority.

She was the keynote speaker at her alma mater for the 2008 Virginia Tech graduation, where she played Metallica's "Enter Sandman" over her iPod.

In 2010, she was elected to a three-year term to the Virginia Tech Alumni Association Board of Directors.

Hoda wrote a New York Times Bestselling Book, Hoda: How I Survived War Zones, Bad Hair, Cancer, and Kathie Lee, which was released in hardcover in October 2010.

On January 15, 2013, she released her second book Ten Years Later: Six People Who Faced Adversity and Transformed Their Lives, in which she chronicles six stories by identifying a game-changing event in her subjects' lives and then revisiting those lives a decade later.

Career

Kotb appears on the fourth hour of the Today Show. She co-hosts along with Kathie Lee Gifford. She has also been a correspondent for Dateline NBC since 1998.

Appearances

• 1986: CBS News - news assistant Cairo, Egypt
• 1986–1989: Morning anchor and general assignment reporter WQAD-TV, ABC Moline, Illinois; and anchor WXVT-TV, CBS Greenville and Greenwood, Mississippi
• 1989–1991: Weekend anchor and reporter WINK-TV Fort Myers, Florida
• 1992–1998: Anchor and reporter WWL-TV, CBS New Orleans, Louisiana
• 1998–present: Dateline NBC correspondent
• 2004–2007: Host of the weekly syndicated series Your Total Health
• 2007–present: Co-host of the fourth hour of Today with Kathie Lee Gifford

Personal life

In her college years at Virginia Tech, Kotb was a member of Delta Delta Delta Women's Fraternity, Beta Nu Chapter.

In 2005, Kotb married former University of New Orleans tennis coach Burzis Kanga. The marriage ended in divorce two years later.

In March 2007, Kotb underwent a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery for breast cancer, and has since become an advocate for breast cancer awareness. Kotb allowed Today Show cameras to follow her throughout her cancer battle. After she was announced cancer-free, her story was documented on the show.