Andy Cohen

Andrew Joseph Cohen (born June 2, 1968) is an American radio and television talk show host, producer, and writer. He is the host and executive producer of ''The Real Housewives'' franchise and Bravo's late night talk show, ''Watch What Happens Live!'' He also hosts a two-hour show with co-host John Hill twice a week on Sirius XM.

Cohen served as Bravo's executive vice president of Development and Talent until 2013. He was responsible for creating original content, developing innovative formats, and identifying new talent. Cohen also served as executive producer on the James Beard award–winning reality cooking competition television show, ''Top Chef''. He also hosted the revival of the television dating show ''Love Connection.'' He has been awarded a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Peabody Awards.

Early life

Andy was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Evelyn and Lou Cohen. He has a sister, Emily Rosenfeld. He is Jewish, with roots in Poland, Russia, and Lithuania. Cohen graduated from Clayton High School in 1986. He is a graduate of Boston University, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in broadcast journalism. Cohen wrote for the Boston University student newspaper, ''The Daily Free Press''. He later interned at CBS News alongside Julie Chen, who was also working as an intern.

Career

Cohen began his career in television as an intern at CBS News. He spent 10 years at the network, eventually serving as senior producer of ''The Early Show'', a producer for '' 48 Hours'', and a producer for ''CBS This Morning''. He joined the television network Trio in 2000, later becoming vice president of original programming at Bravo in 2004, when the network purchased Trio.

Cohen was a regular guest on ''Today'' and ''Morning Joe'', and has co-hosted ''Live! with Kelly'', and ''The View.'' He has made various guest appearances on other talk shows. He has made several guest appearances on television shows playing himself, such as '' The Comeback'' and ''Saturday Night Live''. In summer 2009, Cohen began hosting a weekly midnight television talk show, ''Watch What Happens Live''. The show was later expanded into a weeknight series.

Cohen's autobiographical memoir ''Most Talkative'' (Henry Holt and Company), released in May 2012, became a ''New York Times'' Best Seller in the hardcover, paperback, and combined non-fiction categories.

On August 15, 2013, he declined to co-host the Miss Universe pageant in Russia, due to the country's recent adoption of anti-gay laws. Before that, he hosted Miss USA 2011 and Miss USA 2012. On March 22, 2014, he portrayed Zeus in Lady Gaga's music video for " G.U.Y.".

In November 2014, Cohen published his second memoir, ''The Andy Cohen Diaries: A Deep Look at a Shallow Year'', inspired by the similarly titled ''The Andy Warhol Diaries''. The book spans a year of journal entries beginning in September 2013. ''The Andy Cohen Diaries'' became a ''Times'' Best Seller in the Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction category.

On September 14, 2015, SiriusXM launched a new radio channel curated by Cohen, known as Radio Andy. The channel features shows hosted by Cohen (Andy Cohen Live, and Andy Cohen's Deep & Shallow). Cohen also hosts a series of special broadcasts for his station known as Town Halls in front of a live studio audience. The channel also features shows hosted by; Sandra Bernhard, Bevy Smith, Dan Rather, Michelle Collins, Jim Parsons, Jeff Lewis, Amy Phillips, Jonathan Alter (together with his family), John Hill, the producers of Watch What Happens Live, and the producers at World of Wonder. The channel has also produced specials including; Radio Andy Theater, a parody of the Real Housewives franchise, AC2 Live: Andy and Anderson on the Road (a behind-the-scenes show following Cohen and Anderson Cooper on their live tour), and the Love Connection Diaries (also a backstage docu-series featuring Cohen, and Love Connection producer and Radio Andy host, John Hill).

Cohen and close friend Anderson Cooper announced that they would be going on a national tour to perform their conversational stage show ''AC2'' beginning in March 2015. The tour opened in Boston, followed by Miami Beach, Chicago and Atlanta. The idea for the show came about after Cooper interviewed Cohen about his then-latest book, ''The Andy Cohen Diaries'', at an event at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. Since then, the two-man show has continued to tour reaching over 50 cities as of October 2018.

On December 31, 2015, Cohen hosted a one-off live edition of ''Hollywood Game Night'' (''New Year's Eve Game Night''), and co-hosted ''New Year's Eve with Carson Daly'', for NBC.

In 2016, the publisher Henry Holt and Company announced it was launching the imprint Andy Cohen Books. Cohen's third memoir ''Superficial: More Adventures From the Andy Cohen Diaries'' was published in November 2016. A sequel to ''The Andy Cohen Diaries'', the book covers diary entries for the subsequent two years. ''Superficial'' became a ''Times'' Best Seller among books written by celebrities.

In January 2017, Fox ordered a revival of ''Love Connection'' hosted by Cohen. The hour-long game show premiered on May 25. The same month, Cohen played himself on the Netflix series, ''Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt''. In August 2017, Fox announced that it would renew ''Love Connection'' for a second season. Later that year, Cohen succeeded Kathy Griffin as co-host of CNN's New Year's Eve coverage alongside Cooper.

In 2018, Cohen played himself on the show '' Riverdale'' as a friend of the Lodge family. He made a March 2018 appearance as a guest judge in an episode of the VH1 reality-television series ''RuPaul's Drag Race''.

Since December 2018, Cohen has co-hosted CNN's New Year's Eve coverage with Anderson Cooper.

On April 16, 2022, The Real Housewives Star, Nene Leakes, filed a federal lawsuit against NBCUniversal, Bravo, production companies True Entertainment and Truly Original, and '' Real Housewives'' producer Cohen for violating federal employment and anti-discrimination laws. She dismissed the action and claims on August 19, 2022.

Early in 2024, former Real Housewives stars, Brandi Glanville and Leah McSweeney, made headlines when they accused Andy Cohen of sexual harassment and inappropriate and abusive behavior, specifically alleging that he pressured his cast to drink and to do drugs, and made sexually inappropriate comments (the latter for which Cohen reportedly characterized as a joke and apologized).
In March 2024, an internal investigation by Bravo reportedly found that claims of harassment and misconduct made against Cohen by co-stars and cast on his shows were "unsubstantiated".

In November 2024, a federal Judge heard a case brought by Real Housewives star Leah McSweeney against Cohen.

Personal life

Cohen is the first openly gay host of an American late-night talk show. In December 2018, he announced he would become a father in 2019 with the help of a surrogate. His son, Ben, was born February 4, 2019. His daughter, Lucy, was born April 29, 2022.

Cohen supported Kamala Harris in the 2024 United States presidential election.

In response to antisemitism during the Gaza war following the October 7 attacks, Cohen declared himself a "proud American Jew" and participated in a two-day summit for Jewish influencers in 2024.

Awards

* 2004, Peabody Award, 2004, as executive producer of the Trio documentary '' The N-Word''.
* 2007, ''Multichannel News'' "40 Under 40" broadcasting executives.
* 2007, Peabody Award, as executive producer of the Bravo reality-TV competition ''Project Runway''.
* 2010, appeared on the ''TV Guide'' "Power List" of talked-about individuals.
* 2010, Emmy Award for Outstanding Competitive Reality Series as executive producer of ''Top Chef''
* 2012, '' GQ'''s "25 Best Dressed Men of the Year",
* 2012, chosen as one of ''Broadcasting & Cable's ''"Digital All-Stars".
* 2012 to 2016, listed in ''Out'' magazine's list of Most Powerful Gay People.
* 2019, received the Vito Russo Award at the 30th GLAAD Media Awards.

Filmography

Television

Bibliography

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See also

* Broadcast journalism
* Entertainment journalism
* LGBTQ culture in New York City
* List of LGBTQ people from New York City
* New Yorkers in journalism

References

External links

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''Watch What Happens Live''
official website

Andy Cohen's blog on Bravo
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1968 births
20th-century American Jews
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