Women in History

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Gail Winfrey, was born January 29, 1954, in Kosciusko, Mississippi. After a troubled childhood in Kosciusko, a small farming village, where she was sexually abused by several male relatives and friends of her mother, Vernita; Oprah moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to live with her father, Vernon, a barber and businessman. She was accepted to Tennessee State University in 1971 and began working in radio and tv broadcasting in Nashville. In 1976, she moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where she hosted the tv talk show, People are Talking. The show became a hit and Oprah stayed on for another 8 years. After, she was recruited by a Chicago TV station, to host her own morning show, A.M Chicago. Her major competitor for the time slot was, Phil Donahue. Within the next several months, Oprah's open, congenial persona had earned her more than Donahue's 100,000 viewers, taking her show from last place to first in the ratings. This success lead to nationwide fame and a role in Steven Spielberg's film, The Color Purple (1985), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Oprah launched the, Oprah Winfrey Show, in 1986. It's placement on 120 channels and an audience of 10 million people, lead the show to gross $123 million by the end it's first year, of which Oprah earned, $30 million. Soon after she gained ownership of the program from ABC, bringing it under the control of her new production company, Harpo Pro. (Oprah spelled backwards). In 1994, when talk shows used more and more sleazy humor and exploited guests, Oprah vowed to keep her show devoid of tabloid gossip. Although ratings fell initially, she earned the respect of viewers and soon her show had a resurgence of viewership. Her projects with Hapro Pro., included the well-received 1989 TV miniseries, Women of Brewster Place, which she also starred in.

The media mogul, contributed greatly to the publishing world when she launched, Oprah's Book Club, as a part of her talk show. The program launched many unknown authors to the top of the bestseller lists and gave reading for pleasure, a new kind of popularity. With the debut of Oxygen Media in 1999, a company she co-founded that is dedicated to producing cable & Internet programming for women, Oprah ensured her place at the forefront of the industry and as one of the most influential and wealthy people in show business.

Her widely successful monthly, O: Oprah Magazine debuted back in 2000 and in 2004, she signed a new contract to continue the Oprah Winfrey Show through the 2010-11 season. At the time, the show was broadcast on nearly 212 US stations and in over 100 countries worldwide. In 2005, Oprah helped give, The Color Purple a new life on stage, as one of the producers of the 11 time Tony-nominated musical, which ran on Broadway until 2008. A revival of the musical, which Oprah co-produced in 2015, won a Tony.

In 2009, Oprah announced that she would be ending her program when her contract with ABC ended, in 2011. Soon after, she moved to her own network, The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), which was a joint effort with Discovery Communications. Despite a rocky financial start, the network made headlines in January 2013, when it aired an interview between Oprah & Lance Armstrong, the American cyclist and 7-time Tour de France winner, who was stripped of his titles, in 2012 due to doping charges. The interview reportedly brought in millions in dollars of revenue for OWN.

In March 2015, Oprah announced that her Chicago-based Harpo Studios would close at the end of the year, transferring the company's production operations, to the Los Angeles-based OWN headquarters. Oprah returned to acting with Greenleaf, which became her first recurring scripted tv role. The original family drama, revolves around a Memphis megachurch, premiered on OWN, in June 2016. In December 2017, she announced that Discovery had become the majority owner of OWN, with the purchase of 24.5% of the company, from it's founder for $70 million. Oprah retained 25.5% of OWN and it's chief executive, under the terms of the agreement.

According to Forbes magazine, Oprah Winfrey was the richest African-American of the 20th century and the only black billionaire for 3 consecutive years. Life hailed her as the most influential woman of her generation. In September 2002, Oprah was the first recipient of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' Bob Hope Humanitarian award.In 2005, Business Week named her the greatest black philanthropist in American history. Oprah's Angel Network, has raised more than $50 million for charity, including girl's education in South Africa & relief to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Oprah is also a devoted advocate of children's rights; in 1994, President Bill Clinton passed a bill, that Oprah proposed to Congress, creating a nationwide database of convicted child abusers. 

In November 2013, Oprah received the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. President Barack Obama, gave her this award for her contributions to her country. In January 2018, she became the first African-American woman to receive the Golden Globes' Cecil B. DeMille award, for lifetime achievement. In an impassioned speech, she recalled being inspired by seeing Sidney Poitier at the awards several decades earlier, before emphasizing the importance of a free press and speaking the truth in a "culture broken by brutally powerful men". The overwhelming response to the speech, had many calling for Oprah to run for president, she mostly downplayed the suggestion, though she admitted to People that the encouragement had her toying with the idea.

https://www.biography.com/media-figure/oprah-winfrey