Colleen Ann Williams (born March 6, 1955) is an American journalist. She is a news anchor of

KNBC KNBC (channel 4) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Corona-licens ...

Channel 4 in Los Angeles, currently serving on the 5 and 11 p.m. weekday broadcasts. She also reports on occasion for NBC News and MSNBC. Williams is one of the most-recognized anchors in the Los Angeles area, the second-largest media market in the United States. Williams once could be recognized for her trademark hairstyle which until the late 1990s included a prominent silver streak.

Early life

Williams was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. An Air Force brat, she moved around the country throughout her childhood. She attended college at Creighton University in

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the so ...

before finishing her bachelor's degree in education at

University of Nebraska at Omaha The University of Nebraska Omaha (Omaha or UNO) is a public research university in Omaha, Nebraska. Founded in 1908 by faculty from the Omaha Presbyterian Theological Seminary as a private non-sectarian college, the university was originally kn ...

Career

Williams taught in the Omaha Public School system for a few years before starting her news career with

WOWT WOWT (channel 6) is a television station in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Gray Television. The station's studios are located on Farnam Street near downtown Omaha, and its transmitter is located on a "antenna far ...

in Omaha. Williams joined

in 1986 from cross-town rival KCBS-TV where she anchored the 5 p.m. news for three years, succeeding

Connie Chung Constance Yu-Hwa Chung (born August 20, 1946) is an American journalist. She has been an anchor and reporter for the U.S. television news networks NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, and MSNBC. Some of her more famous interview subjects include Claus von B� ...

after she left for NBC News. Prior to her L.A. arrival at KCBS (which was then KNXT), Williams anchored at

KPIX-TV KPIX-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's CBS network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside ...

, the CBS station in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

. Williams was particularly visible during the

O. J. Simpson Orenthal James Simpson (born July 9, 1947), nicknamed "Juice", is an American former football running back, actor, and broadcaster who played for the Buffalo Bills and San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League. Once a popular figure ...

murder trial, which she covered for KNBC and MSNBC, co-anchoring a daily summary of the trial each evening

It was after the Simpson trial concluded that Williams succeeded long-time 11 p.m. anchor Kelly Lange. Lange left the station after 25 years to work briefly for

KCBS-TV KCBS-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside independent ...

before leaving television entirely in 2001. On August 29, 2009, Williams attended the 61st Emmy Awards at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in

North Hollywood, California North Hollywood is a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, located in the San Fernando Valley. The neighborhood contains the NoHo Arts District, the El Portal Theatre, several art galleries, and the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences. The North H ...

Awards

Williams has received Golden mic awards: * coverage of the Chatsworth train crash * NBC4's special "LA Riots: Rubble to Rebirth." * coverage of 1996 Atlanta Summer Games Centennial Park bombing Williams was also awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Radio & Television News Association.

References

External links

Biography from NBCLosAngeles.com
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Colleen Living people American television journalists Creighton University alumni Journalists from California Television anchors from Los Angeles NBC News people People from Omaha, Nebraska People from Pasadena, California People from San Francisco People from Winston-Salem, North Carolina Television anchors from San Francisco University of Nebraska Omaha alumni American women television journalists 1955 births 21st-century American women