Lia Cruz is a

Filipina Filipinos () are citizens or people identified with the country of the Philippines. Filipinos come from various Austronesian peoples, all typically speaking Filipino, English, or other Philippine languages. Despite formerly being subject to ...

television host A television presenter (or television host, some become a "television personality") is a person who introduces or hosts television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. It is common for people who garnered fam ...

, news and weather anchor, sportscaster,

podcaster A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files that users can download to a personal device or stream to listen to at a time of their ...

, writer and producer based in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

Life and career

Lia was born on July 13, 1985, in Manila, Philippines. She graduated from the Ateneo de Manila University in Manila in 2005, with a degree in AB Communication. She began her TV broadcasting career while still a student here, reporting in the UAAP for

ABS-CBN ABS-CBN is a leading Philippine media and content company. It serves as the flagship media brand of ABS-CBN Corporation, a subsidiary of Lopez Holdings Corporation. Once the country's largest free-to-air television network, ABS-CBN has since ...

(

Studio 23 Studio 23 (officially Studio 23, Inc. and stylized in all uppercase as STUDIO 23) was a Tagalog television network owned by ABS-CBN Corporation. The network was named for its flagship station in Metro Manila, DWAC-TV and carried on UHF chan ...

). She has worked with the World Meteorological Organization on projects to create awareness for climate change. Her video from the Philippines on
Weather in 2050
was released worldwide leading up to the 2014 United Nations Climate Summit in New York City. Lia is also a founding member of the international organizatio
Climate Without Borders
founded in 2017 in Brussels, Belgium. Lia has been an endorser of Adidas products in the Philippines. She is married and has one child.

Television and Radio

Lia began her career as she clinched a courtside student-reporting stint in 2005 and 2006 for Ateneo at the

University Athletic Association of the Philippines The University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP), established in 1938, is an athletic association of eight Metro Manila universities in the Philippines. The eight-member schools are Adamson University (AdU), Ateneo de Manila Univ ...

(UAAP) collegiate basketball league on Studio 23. Lia's former TV projects include House of Hoops ( ABC 5), Man and Machine (MTV, Studio 23) Auto Extreme (

Solar Sports Solar Sports is a Philippines, Philippine Digital television, digital free-to-air television network based in Shaw Boulevard, Mandaluyong, Philippines. It serves as the flagship network of Southern Broadcasting Network, a subsidiary of Solar En ...

), U-Rock (radio show on NU107), and DJ on Heart 103.5. She grew a following from her stints as the main host for BTV under

and as a courtside reporter for the

Philippine Basketball Association The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) is a men's professional basketball league in the Philippines, composed of twelve company-branded Franchising, franchise teams. Founded in 1975, it is the first professional basketball league in Asia ...

(PBA). In 2010, Lia joined the Kapatid Network, TV5, as one of the hosts of morning news show ' Sapul Sa 5.' She became a weather anchor, and a news anchor for late night news, as well as covered major international sporting events such as the 2012 London Olympics, 2016 Rio Olympics, 2014 FIBA World Cup and the Southeast Asian Games. In 2017, Lia was named as the main presenter of ESPN 5's flagship sports newscast,

SportsCenter Philippines ''SportsCenter Philippines'' is a Television in the Philippines, Philippine television sports news broadcasting show broadcast by TV5 (Philippine TV network), TV5. The show based of American television ''SportsCenter''. Originally anchored by Aa ...

, along with fellow Sports5/ESPN5 presenters Aaron Atayde,

Magoo Marjon Magoo Marjon is a Filipino sports play-by-play commentator. He is known for calling lines such as "Bang!" (like of Mike Breen), "May kasama pang foul" (when a player shoots the ball and fouled), and "Punches it through" (alternate to Bang!). ...

and Amanda Fernandez. It was the local version of

SportsCenter ''SportsCenter'' (SC) is an American television sports news broadcasting show broadcast by ESPN. Originally anchored by Chris Berman, George Grande, Greg Gumbel, Lee Leonard, Bob Ley, Sal Marchiano and Lou Palmer, it premiered on Septem ...

following TV5's partnership with global sports network

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

. For this, she and Atayde received training in ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut in the United States.

Writing

When she was a teen, Lia started writing for Candy Magazine, a magazine for teenage girls published by

Summit Media Summit Publishing Co., Inc., doing business as Summit Media, is a Philippine digital media and publishing company. Founded in 1995, the company owns several entertainment and lifestyle media websites in the Philippines. Summit Media began as ...

. She was part of the very first Candy Council of Cool, and went on to write for other magazines and publications. She wrote a short story, "claire'sworld.com," for Summit Books' young adult anthology "Coming of Age." She is currently a contributor for the lifestyle section of the

Philippine Daily Inquirer The ''Philippine Daily Inquirer'' (''PDI''), or simply the ''Inquirer'', is an English-language newspaper in the Philippines. Founded in 1985, it is often regarded as the Philippines' newspaper of record. The newspaper is the most awarded broad ...

Podcasting

In 2021, Lia launche
What Glass Ceiling?
a podcast about inspiring women and their struggles, together with Stef Orandain-Virata and Trypod Network.

TV shows

UAAP The University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP), established in 1938, is an athletic association of eight Metro Manila universities in the Philippines. The eight-member schools are Adamson University (AdU), Ateneo de Manila Univer ...

Basketball games (

(now ABS-CBN Sports & Action), 2005-2006) - courtside reporter * PBL (

2008, 2005-2007;

Solar TV Solar TV (stylized as SOLARtv) was the flagship television network of Solar Entertainment Corporation's television arm subsidiary Solar TV Network, Solar TV Network, Inc., which is the replacement of C/S 9. This was the revival of the former So ...

, 2009-2010) *Auto Extreme (

, 2007) *House Of Hoops (

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

, 2008) *Man and Machine (

MTV Philippines MTV Philippines was a 24-hour music/entertainment television network owned by All Youth Channels, All Youth Channels, Inc., through a partnership with MTV Networks Asia Pacific. The network originally started its broadcast on January 1, 2001. ...

, 2008-2009) * PBA ( TV5, 2007-2008;

, 2009-2010) - courtside reporter *

Sapul sa Singko ''Sapul sa Singko'' ( English: Bullseye on Five), formerly ''Sapul'' ( English: Bullseye) is a Philippine television news broadcasting and talk show broadcast by TV5. Originally hosted by Erwin Tulfo, Martin Andanar, Lourd de Veyra, and Shawn Y ...

( TV5, 2010-2012) - host *Tech Trip ( TV5, 2010–2012) - host *Aksyon News Alerts (TV5, 2011-2017) *

Pilipinas News TV5 (also known as 5 and formerly known as ABC) is a Philippine free-to-air television and radio network owned by MediaQuest Holdings, a multimedia arm of Philippine-based telecommunications company PLDT. It is the flagship property of TV5 N ...

( TV5, 2012-2014) - Aksyon Weather anchor * Aksyon Tonite (TV5, 2014 - 2017) - news anchor *

(

ESPN5 One Sports (formerly ABC Sports from 2004 to 2008, Sports5 from 2011 to 2017 and ESPN5 from 2017 to 2020) is the sports division of TV5 Network, Inc. and jointly-operated with sister company Cignal TV. One Sports supplies and airs major spo ...

, 2017–2020) - lead anchor and presenter, correspondent

Radio

* Heart 103.5 (as a DJ, 2007) *U-Rock (

NU 107 DWNU, a radio station in Mega Manila, was broadcasting from 1987 to 2010 as NU 107 that played mainly rock music. It was owned by Progressive Broadcasting Corporation. The station's last studio was located at the ground floor of AIC Gold Tower, F ...

, 2005-2010)

Podcasts

What Glass Ceiling? with Lia Cruz
(2021)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cruz, Lia Ateneo de Manila University alumni Filipino video jockeys Filipino women television presenters Living people Filipino sports announcers 1985 births News5 people Place of birth missing (living people)