David Ono ABC7 By Patti Hirahara March 26 2015

David Ono is a Japanese American filmmaker and news anchor for

KABC-TV KABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship station of the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station mai ...

Channel 7 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. He is the co-anchor for ''ABC7 Eyewitness News'' at 4 and 6 p.m. with Ellen Leyva. He also fills in for co-anchor Marc Brown at 5 and 11 P.M.

Early life

Born David Johnston in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

to a Japanese mother and a Caucasian father, Ono moved to the United States with his family at age one. Raised in

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, he attended the

University of North Texas The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public university, public research university located in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Its main campus is in Denton, Texas, Denton, with a satellite campus in Frisco, Texas, Frisco. It serves as the ...

. Ono stated that he had little contact with his Asian roots as his mother died young and he was raised in a community that was either Caucasian or Latino. Since moving to California he has embraced his biracial heritage and became involved in the Asian American Journalists Association. He adopted the last name Ono, his mother's maiden name, professionally during the early 1990s.

Career

Ono has also worked at

KOVR KOVR (channel 13) is a television station licensed to Stockton, California, United States, serving as the CBS outlet for the Sacramento area. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside KMAX-TV (channel ...

Sacramento, California Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat, seat of Sacramento County, California, Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento Rive ...

KDBC-TV KDBC-TV (channel 4) is a television station in El Paso, Texas, United States, affiliated with CBS and MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Fox affiliate KFOX-TV (channel 14). The two stations share studios on South Alt ...

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; ; or ) is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The 2020 United States census, 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the List of ...

KOSA-TV KOSA-TV (channel 7) is a television station licensed to Odessa, Texas, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for the Permian Basin area. It is owned by Gray Media alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate KWWT (channel 30), CW+ affiliate KCWO-T ...

in Midland/Odessa, and

KXAS-TV KXAS-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to Fort Worth, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned and operated by the NBC television network through its NBC Owned Television Stations division alon ...

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

. Having joined ABC's Los Angeles O&O

in 1996, he has interviewed President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

and covered major international events, including the

Boston Marathon bombing The Boston Marathon bombing, sometimes referred to as simply the Boston bombing, was an Islamist domestic terrorist attack that took place during the 117th annual Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. Brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarna ...

, the

wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton The wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton took place on Friday, 29 April 2011 at Westminster Abbey in London, England. William was second in the line of succession to the British throne at the time, later becoming heir apparent. T ...

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...

, the

2010 Haiti earthquake The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic Moment magnitude scale, magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake that struck Haiti at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. The epicenter was near the town of Léogâne, Ouest (departm ...

and the 2011 Tōhoku tsunami. With Ono and sports anchor Rob Fukuzaki, ''ABC7 Eyewitness News'' is one of the few news programs in the country with two Asian American male anchors. Outside of broadcasting, Ono has produced several documentaries chronicling the

Asian American Asian Americans are Americans with ancestry from the continent of Asia (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of those immigrants). Although this term had historically been used fo ...

and immigrant experience, such as the

internment of Japanese Americans United States home front during World War II, During World War II, the United States forcibly relocated and Internment, incarcerated about 120,000 people of Japanese Americans, Japanese descent in ten #Terminology debate, concentration camps opera ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and Phan Thi Kim Phuc, the "Napalm girl" from the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

. He and Jeff MacIntyre created the documentary '' The Legacy of Heart Mountain'' about the Japanese internment camp

Heart Mountain Relocation Center The Heart Mountain War Relocation Center, named after nearby Heart Mountain (Wyoming), Heart Mountain and located midway between the northwest Wyoming towns of Cody, Wyoming, Cody and Powell, Wyoming, Powell, was one of ten concentration camps ...

. In the documentary he personally interviewed a number of survivors, including the mother of judge Lance Ito.

Awards

Ono has won three Edward R. Murrow Awards and 16

Emmys The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

. In December 2015 he was honored by the Los Angeles chapter of the

Society of Professional Journalists The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi, is the oldest organization representing journalists in the United States. It was established on April 17, 1909, at DePauw University,2009 SPJ Annual Report, lette ...

with the Distinguished Journalist Award. In 2022, Ono received Japan's Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette for his work promoting understanding of Japan in the United States and for his work within Japanese American community.

Personal

Ono has a daughter, Kaia, with his partner, Laura Ise.

References

External links

Official Profile
–

website {{DEFAULTSORT:Ono, David Living people American television journalists Television anchors from Los Angeles American writers of Japanese descent American male journalists American journalists of Asian descent University of North Texas alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 4th class Television anchors from Sacramento, California