Name: Oprah Winfrey

Nickname: O, Deepak Oprah, Lady O

Famous for: Host of the Oprah Winfrey Show (1986–2011)

Date of Birth: January 29, 1954

Alma mater: Tennessee State University

Age: 64 Years

Place of Birth: Kosciusko, Mississippi, USA

Residence: Montecito, California

Profession: Actress, Author

Chairwoman and CEO of Harpo Productions (1986–present)

Chairwoman, CEO, and CCO of the Oprah Winfrey Network (2011–present)

Mother's Name:

Father's name:

Net worth: US$2.8 billion (February 2018)

Partner: Stedman Graham (1986–present)

Children: Canaan (born 1968, died 1968)

Website: oprah.com

Introduction

Oprah Winfrey is best known for the audacity and sincerity with which she hosted her own talk show from 1986 to 2011. She is today counted among a Billionaire media giant and quite an actively involved philanthropist. After getting famous with hosting her talk show she also happened to launch her own television network with name OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network).

Who Is Oprah Winfrey?

Oprah shot to fame after her talk show named as "The Oprah Winfrey show" which aired from 1986 to 2011 and it continue to be the favourite of people for 25 seasons. She was born on 29th of January 1954 in the rural town of Kosciusko, Mississippi and she moved later to Baltimore in 1976 and there she hosted a chat show named as "People Are Talking". Then she got recruited by a Chicago TV station where she hosted her own morning show. She also had her own TV Network under the name the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).

Early life and Childhood

Oprah real name was Orpah which came from the biblical character, Ruth's daughter-in-law in the Book of Ruth. But, since every one called her as Oprah, her name was later changed officially in her birth certificate. She has had to go through a lot of hardships during her childhood! Oprah's was born to Vernita Lee (mother), who was housemaid and her father, Vernon Winfrey was a miner who later worked as a barber. Her father served in the naval army away far away from the family and he never got married to Oprah's mother. Her mother later moved to Milwaukee to take up the job of a maid and she had left the little Oprah behind with her strict grandmother. Oprah was often beaten by her grandmother with a stick if she ever dared not to do what she was ordered

Her childhood was not normal and she never felt the kind of tenderness that usually we are blessed with during our childhood. She never had the privilege to have a pretty new beautiful pair of shoes or a dress that she would love flaunting in front of her friends. She never had the luxury to attend a school and she had spent her childhood in seclusion of the farm where she was left by her mother. Because of her loneliness she created her own way of entertaining herself and she would befriend with animals and she got herself entrenched into reading books. She did not have the access to television on the farm and it was only her grandmother who gave her the most precious gift of writing and reading which actually gave her a direction in her life.

The most inspiring and the role model in Oprah's life was her grandmother! And, she had often been seen quoting in many interviews that it was her grandmother who had taught her to be strong and whatever she is today is because of the way of life her grandmother taught her. On every Sunday her grandmother would take her to the church and people would be astonished to see the little oprah reciting the verses of the bible in her sweet beautiful voice.

Oprah's Story: Her Career

Oprah Winfrey, an actress, television host, philanthropist, producer and an entrepreneur had a very troubled adolescent age and she was sexually abused by a number friends and close friends of her mother Vernita. Later when she moved with her father to Nashville she started working in television and radio broadcasting and also entered Tennessee State University in 1971.

In the year 1976, she then moved to Baltimore, Maryland and hosted a television chat show named as "People are talking" and this show ran successfully for eight years. This led her to get recruited in the Chicago TV station in order to host her own morning show and she took her show from last place to the first place. After the huge success of her show she also begged a role in the Steven Spielberg's movie, The Purple which came in 1985 and for her movie she was also nominated for best supporting actress.

"The Oprah Winfrey Show"

In the year 1986, Oprah came up with the "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and surprisingly by the end of the first year the gross income from the show came out to be $125 million and out of this Oprah received $ 30 million.

Oprah's Book Club

Oprah also had committed to the publishing world by launching "the Oprah Book Club" which was a part of her talk show. This club helped many of the top level authors to appear on top of the bestseller list and also gave to the world a peculiarly new kind of reading experience.

OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network)

In the year Oprah Winfrey announced to the world that her contract with ABC will be ending in 2011 and she would soon be ending up her show. Very soon after the end of her show she launched her own Network "The Oprah Communication Network" which was a joint venture with Discovery communication.

Her Role as a Philanthropist and the titles

As per one report of the Forbes magazine, Oprah was found to be the World's only black Billionaire for three in a row and was also the richest African American of the 20th century. She was also entitled with the most influential person of the century. In addition to that, also in 20005 she was named as the biggest and the most influential Black philanthropist in the entire American history. She had also been participating in over the years in various philanthropic activities including relief program of the Hurricane Katrina, education of women in South Africa and many others.

2018 Golden Globes Speech: #MeToo, Female Empowerment

In the year 2018, Oprah Winfrey got the opportunity to be awarded with the Golden Globes' Cecil B. DeMille Award, for lifetime achievement and she became the first African-American women to be awarded in this category. She gave a powerful speech and in her speech she recalled being inspired by seeing Sidney Poitier honored at the Globes decades earlier. In her speech she also spoke about the power in speaking the truth in a society in a "culture broken by brutally powerful men".
The following is a snippet of the speech that she gave…
"So I want all the girls watching here and now to know that a new day is on the horizon," she said, in closing. "And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say, 'Me too' again."