Cynthia Gouw (born May 30, 1963) is an American actress, model, and TV

news anchor A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...

and host.

Biography

One of Gouw's great grandfathers moved from

Xiamen Xiamen,), also known as Amoy ( ; from the Zhangzhou Hokkien pronunciation, zh, c=, s=, t=, p=, poj=Ē͘-mûi, historically romanized as Amoy, is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Stra ...

, China to Indonesia, where he started a department store chain. Her parents, both Chinese immigrants from Indonesia, went to university in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and moved to

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 ...

in 1961. In 1963, she became the first in her family to be born in the United States. She grew up with her parents and brother in

El Cerrito, California El Cerrito (Spanish language, Spanish for "The Little Hill") is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, and forms part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It has a population of 25,962 according to the 2020 United States census, 2 ...

and graduated from the

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

there in 1981. She then attended

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

, where she majored in political science and international relations and minored in Asian American studies. She also edited ''Pacific Ties'', UCLA's Asian-American newspaper and interned for Willie Brown. In 1991, she graduated from

UCLA School of Law The University of California, Los Angeles School of Law (commonly known as UCLA School of Law or UCLA Law) is the law school of the University of California, Los Angeles. History Founded in 1949, the UCLA School of Law is the third oldest of t ...

Career

Modeling

She entered

Miss LA Chinatown Miss Los Angeles Chinatown () 2020 is Corrie Chan. The pageant was started in 1963. Overview The program is sponsored by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles. Miss and Mr. Chinatown will be responsible to select an organization(s) th ...

on an assignment for ''Pacific Ties'' in 1984 but ended up winning the pageant and moving on to win

Miss Chinatown USA The Miss Chinatown USA pageant, based on Chinese communities within the U.S., greets delegates around the country. The pageant has been an annual Lunar New Year event since 1958. The winners of this pageant represent the Chinese community and a ...

the following year. She won the Spokesmodel competition on ''

Star Search ''Star Search'' (later known as ''Ed McMahon's Star Search'') is an American television show that was produced by T.P.E./ Rysher Entertainment from 1983 to 1995, hosted by Ed McMahon, and created by Al Masini. A relaunch was produced by 29 ...

'' in 1988, the first Asian American to do so. In 2005, she placed third in the '' More Magazine'' and Wilhelmina 40+Model Search. She has been a spokesperson for

L'Oréal L'Oréal S.A. () is a French multinational personal care corporation registered in Paris

Acting

She appeared as

Romulan The Romulans () are an extraterrestrial race in the American science fiction franchise ''Star Trek''. Their adopted home world is Romulus, and within the same star system they have settled a sister planet Remus. Their original home world, Vulcan ...

Ambassador Caithlin Dar in the movie '' Star Trek V: The Final Frontier''. She also appeared in ''

China Beach ''China Beach'' is an American war film, war drama television series set at an evacuation hospital during the Vietnam War. The title refers to My Khe Beach in the city of Da Nang, Đà Nẵng, Vietnam, nicknamed "China Beach" in English by Amer ...

'' and '' Matlock''.

Journalism and broadcasting

Throughout her career, Gouw has worked as a reporter and/or news anchor for

KTVU KTVU (channel 2) is a television station licensed to Oakland, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned and operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network through its Fox Television Stations division along ...

, E!, Channel 26,

Continental Cablevision Comcast MO Group, Inc. (formerly MediaOne Group, Inc.) is a telecommunications company created by US West Inc. in 1998 following US West's acquisition of Boston-based Continental Cable. The company combined Continental with Wometco/GTC, which U ...

KXTV KXTV (channel 10) is a television station in Sacramento, California, United States, affiliated with ABC. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station maintains studios on Broadway, just south of US 50 at the south edge of downtown Sacramento, and its tr ...

KDFW KDFW (channel 4) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned and operated by the Fox network through its Fox Television Stations division alongside KDFI (channel ...

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

KERO-TV KERO-TV (channel 23) is a television station in Bakersfield, California, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. The station's studios are located on 21st Street in Downtown Bakersfield, and its transmitter ...

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 ...

, and NPR San Francisco. She was previously a reporter for

Pacific Time The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−08:00). ...

and was

's first Asian-American news anchor. In 1996, while working for Channel 10 in Sacramento, she won a

Regional Emmy 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 her feature ''Is Your Kid in a Gang?''. She won another award the following year with photographer Mike Garza for their work on ''The Promised Land'', a feature about illegal immigration. In 1998, she won a third Emmy for ''Hong Kong: The California Connection'' in the current affairs programming category. She has also won 4 Society of Professional Journalism Awards and was honored with a "Best TV Talk Show Series in the State" nod from the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters. In

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, Gouw hosted ''Asian Outlook'', a half-hour talk show focused on the affairs of the

Pacific Rim The Pacific Rim comprises the lands around the rim of the Pacific Ocean. The '' Pacific Basin'' includes the Pacific Rim and the islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Rim roughly overlaps with the geological Pacific Ring of Fire. List ...

for

WYBE WPPT (channel 35) is a PBS member television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It is owned by Lehigh Valley Public Media alongside Allentown-licensed fellow PBS member WLVT-TV (channel 39). As WYBE, the station's transmitter ...

. Gouw was named Member of the Year by the Chinese American Council and Honoree of the Year by the Asian Bar Association of Sacramento. She has also been recognized by the

California State Legislature The California State Legislature is the bicameral state legislature of the U.S. state of California, consisting of the California State Assembly (lower house with 80 members) and the California State Senate (upper house with 40 members). ...

, and is on the Advisory Board of

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

's "Grade the News".

Personal life

She has a daughter and two step-children. Her husband Doug Alexander is a businessman and one of the original board members of

Actua Corporation Actua Corporation was a venture capital firm. During the dot com bubble, the company had a market capitalization of over $50 billion. The company was originally known as Internet Capital Group, Inc. and changed its name to Actua Corporation in S ...

, and has been in senior management positions in a number of start-ups and Actua spinoffs. She briefly dated

Prince Andrew Prince Andrew, Duke of York (Andrew Albert Christian Edward; born 19 February 1960) is a member of the British royal family. He is the third child and second son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and a younger broth ...

in the 2000s.

Filmography

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gouw, Cynthia Living people 1963 births Indonesian people of Chinese descent Television anchors from Los Angeles Television anchors from Sacramento, California Television anchors from San Francisco American journalists of Chinese descent Actresses from Berkeley, California American women television journalists American women journalists of Asian descent UCLA School of Law alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni 21st-century American women El Cerrito High School alumni