Lester Holt Biography
Lester Holt is an American reporter, anchor, and correspondent working for NBC News. He joined the station in 2003 and serves as the anchor for NBC Nightly News and Today.
Lester Holt Education
Holt attended Cordova High School in Rancho Cordova and in 1977 he graduated with his Diploma in General Education. From there, he had to further his education. He joined California State University, Sacramento to pursue his career course. While there, he majored in government though he never graduated. When talking with American Profile news magazine he said, “My first on-air job was actually as a disc jockey at a Country and Western station. The only time I could land a full-time gig was if I was willing to report the news.” He would keep the job with the radio station through his college years
Lester Holt Career
Holt is a reporter, anchor, and international correspondent at NBC News. Prior to working for NBC News, he worked as a reporter for WCBS-TV in New York City. He also worked for KNXT in Los Angeles. While there, he served the station as a reporter and weekend anchor. After one year, he returned to WCBS-TV as a reporter and weekend anchor. From there, he moved to WBBM-TV in Chicago. During his working time there, he worked as an evening news anchor for 14 years. He not only worked at the anchor desk but also reported extensively from troubled spots around the world, including Iraq, Northern Ireland, Somalia, El Salvador, and Haiti.
During his tenure at NBC News, he joined as a substitute anchor for NBC Nightly News and Today. He later became a full-time co-anchor of Weekend Today following the death of the previous co-anchor David Bloom. While working for NBC News, he also anchored a two-hour daily newscast on MSNBC until late 2005. Currently, he hosts NBC’s Dateline. In 2016, he moderated a presidential debate and in 2017, he interviewed President Donald Trump. In addition to that, he hosted a special for The History Channel about the 9/11 conspiracy theories and served as a sports desk reporter for NBC Sports coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics. During his leisure time, he likes playing bass guitar and upright bass.
Lester Holt Age
Holt is 63 years old as of 2022. He was born on March 8, 1959, on Hamilton Air Force Base, Marin County, California. Holt celebrates his birthday on the 8 of March every year.
Lester Holt Height
Holt stands at an approximate height of 5 feet 9 inches.
Lester Holt Family
Holt was born and raised on Hamilton Air Force Base, Marin County, California. He is the youngest child of four of June (DeRozario) and Lester Don Holt Sr. Holt’s maternal grandparents originate from Jamaica. Canute DeRozario, his maternal grandfather was an Anglo-Indian. He was one of 14 children of an Indo-Jamaican father from Calcutta, India, and a White Jamaican mother from England. May, his maternal grandmother was born in Jamaica but raised in Harlem, New York. Holt’s mother was also in Harlem, New York. His father on the other side was African American from Michigan, with roots in Tennessee.
Lester Holt Wife
Holt is married to his better half Carol Hagen. Together they are blessed with two sons, Stefan Holt, and Cameron Holt. In 2009, Stefan graduated from Pepperdine University and was the morning news anchor at NBC-owned WMAQ-TV in Chicago. Stefan moved to the same floor as his father’s Nightly News in 2016 when joining WNBC. Eventually, he succeeded veteran Chuck Scarborough as anchor of the station’s 11 p.m. news broadcast. Currently, he works for the WMAQ NBC affiliate in Chicago as the 10:00 pm anchor. Holt attends the Manhattan Church of Christ in New York.
Lester Holt Net Worth
Holt has an estimated net worth ranging between $1 Million – $5 Million which he has earned from his successful career as a reporter, anchor, and correspondent.
Lester Holt Salary
Holt earns an annual salary ranging between $40,000 – $ 110,500.
Awards and honors
Throughout his journalism career, he has received multiple awards and honors for his reporting and anchoring. In 1990, his work on CBS’s 48 Hours: No Place Like Home earned him Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, and in 2012 and 2015 he received Honorary Doctorate from Pepperdine University and Honorary Doctorate from California State University, Sacramento respectively. He was inducted into the California Hall of Fame on October 28, 2015, and in 2016 Montclair State University awarded him the Alan B. DuMont Broadcaster of the Year and the National Association of Black Journalists awarded him the NABJ Journalist of the Year Award. In 2019, he received Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism, and in 2020, he was honored with Honorary Doctorate by Rutgers University.
Lester Holt NBC News
Holt works at NBC News where he works alongside other famous NBC News anchors, reporters, meteorologists, and sports anchors including;
- Chuck Todd
- Hoda Kotb
- Al Roker
- Carson Daly
- Seth Meyers
- Lilly Singh
- Peter Alexander
- Somara Theodore
- Jose Diaz-Balart
- Kate Snow
- Andrea Mitchell
- Garrett Haake
- Kelly O’Donnell
- Mike Memoli
- Marianna Sotomayor
- Geoff Bennett
- Josh Lederman
- Morgan Radford