Lara Spencer Biography

Lara Spencer (born June 19, 1969) is the lifestyle anchor for Good Morning America. She is also a correspondent for Nightline and ABC News. Previously, she was the host of the syndicated television newsmagazine The Insider for seven seasons and was a regular contributor to CBS's The Early Show. Previous to this, she was the National Correspondent for Good Morning America and spent several years as a features and lifestyle reporter for WABC-TV. She also hosted Antiques Roadshow on PBS for the 2004 and 2005 seasons, as well as Antiques Roadshow FYI and also has a segment airing semi-regularly on Rachael Ray titled "The Dish".

Biography

Born Lara Christine Von Seelen, she grew up in the New York City suburb of Garden City, where she attended Garden City High School. She attended Pennsylvania State University on an athletic scholarship for springboard and platform diving and was a nationally ranked competitive diver. She was named an All American Athlete in 1991, her senior year and graduated with a degree in Broadcast Journalism.

Following college, she went into the NBC page program where she would volunteer to go out with other reporters in order to gain experience. From there, she landed a position with CBS affiliate WDEF-TV in Chattanooga, where she "was literally a one-man band", serving as reporter, producer, editor, cameraman and news-van driver. A year later, she joined News 12 Long Island and two years following that she was anchoring the 3 AM newscast for WABC-TV. While there, she covered the TWA Flight 800 crash, which was considered her big break. She joined Good Morning America in 1999 as a national correspondent.

She married the former CNNfn journalist David Haffenreffer on September 1, 2000 at St. Andrew's Dune Church in an Episcopal ceremony. The couple has two children. They lived in the Riverside section of Greenwich, Connecticut before moving to Los Angeles in 2008. Lara and David Haffenreffer's wedding was featured in Martha Stewart's Weddings magazine. Segments were included in Martha's Weddings DVD set.

Television producer

She was the creator and the executive producer of the prime time game show, It's Worth What?, hosted by Cedric the Entertainer, which aired in the summer of 2011 on NBC.

Spencer has also created and produced two shows for HGTV based on her passions for interior design and newscasting, which were a one-hour special that aired in April 2012 and a flea market-themed television series currently airing on the network called Flea Market Flip.

Other work

Spencer's first book, I Brake for Yard Sales, a guide on how to create high end looking rooms using second hand finds, was published in 2012.