Anita Padilla is an American television journalist best known as an anchor and reporter, covering stories that impact the lives of Chicagoans. She is a recipient of two

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 ...

Early life

Padilla was born in Waukegan, Il a far northeastern suburb of metropolitan

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. She later moved to the

Quad Cities The Quad Cities is a region of five cities (originally Tri-Cities, later four, see #History, History) in the U.S. states of Iowa and Illinois: Davenport, Iowa, Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, Bettendorf (the fifth to be included) in southeaster ...

(Iowa/Illinois), Orlando, Florida and New York City, NY. She currently works for Fox Chicago.

Education

*Columbia College Chicago, B.A. Broadcast Journalism *University of Wisconsin, Madison, General Studies *Madison Area Technical College, General Studies

Career

Padilla's first reporting work was as an intern for

Bill Kurtis Bill Kurtis (born William Horton Kuretich; September 21, 1940) is a retired American television journalist, television producer, narrator, and news anchor. Kurtis was studying to become a lawyer in the 1960s, when he was asked to fill in on a ...

WBBM-TV WBBM-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, serving as the market's CBS network outlet. Owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, the station maintains studios on West Washington St ...

. She then worked in

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

as an anchor and at Shadow traffic as a traffic editor. At

WFTV WFTV (channel 9) is a television station in Orlando, Florida, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It is owned by Cox Media Group alongside WRDQ (channel 27), an independent station. The two stations share studios ...

Orlando, Florida Orlando ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Florida, United States. The city proper had a population of 307,573 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville ...

, she helped to run a news bureau. In 1995, she earned her first

Emmy Awards 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 ...

for breaking news coverage of an armed robbery and carjacking in Orlando by a murderer. In 2000, she received a second Emmy for her role in a New Year's Eve Millennium celebration piece while at WMAQ Channel 5 in Chicago. She has reported on many high-profile stories in Chicago, including exclusive interviews with Betty Loren-Maltese on the day of her racketeering conviction and again when she was sentenced to eight years in federal prison. She also covered former Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan's battle with cancer, the unexpected loss of his young daughter and his wife's heart attack. In 2013, she was the commencement speaker at Northwestern College. "Anita Padilla will bring a flair of excitement as our 2013 commencement speaker," commented President Schumacher. "She's a local success story having grown up in the Chicago suburbs, and we have no doubt that she will inspire our graduates as they celebrate their own personal accomplishments." On December 27, 2023, Anita announced her retirement from journalism on FOX 32's Good Day Chicago but continues to maintain a presence on social media.

Awards

*Emmy awards 1995 and 2000

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Padilla, Anita American television news anchors American television reporters and correspondents Living people People from Villa Park, Illinois Journalists from Chicago University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Columbia College Chicago alumni American women television journalists Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women