Name	Christiane Amanpour
Height
Naionality	American
Date of Birth	January 12, 1958
Place of Birth	London, England
Famous for

Anyone who is familiar with CNN will recognize the highly distinguished international correspondent with the intelligent, objective and deeply probing style of journalism that has seen her becoming one of the highest paid field reporters on American television.

Christiane Amanpour was born to an English mother, Patricia and an Iranian father Mohammed, in London, England, on January 12th 1958. When Christiane and her sister Lizzy were still young their parents moved them to Tehran, Iran. At that time country was under the regime of the Shah of Iran and Christiane’s family led a privileged life with her father working as an Iranian Airline executive.

In 1979, when Christiane was just eleven years old her family had to leave Iran with the founding of the Islamic Revolution in the county. When she returned to her birth country she attended the Holy Cross Convent School in Buckinghamshire and then the exclusive Roman Catholic, New Hall School.

Amanpour’s university days were spent in America at the University of Rhode Island where she studied journalism. One of her college housemates was John F Kennedy Jr, with whom she remained close friends until his death in 1999.

When she graduated, with a bachelor of arts in journalism, she was instantly employed by NBC affiliate, WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island. But by 1993 she had been spotted by CNN and was sent on assignments around the world, including covering the conflicts in Sarajevo, Kuwait and Iraq. The first Persian Gulf War in 1990, saw Christiane covering the Iraqi occupation of neighbouring Kuwait and it was during this period that she became the face of CNN while covering the atrocities that Saddam Hussein inflicted on the civilians of Kuwait.

Amanpour’s next war time assignment was to come in the mid 1990’s with the Bosnian war in Europe which had her reporting in such an emotional manner that her style of coverage became the object of criticism but her reply to her critics was, ‘There are some situations one simply cannot be neutral about, because when you are neutral you are an accomplice. Objectivity doesn't mean treating all sides equally. It means giving each side a hearing." However, this did not prevent her receiving the Breakthrough Award from Women, Men and Media, and her contribution to the 1985 four-week series, Iran: In the Name of God, helped CNN earn its first DuPont award.
The CBS network contracted Christiane for nine years from 1996 through 2005, as a special contributor compiling in depth international news reports for their 60 Minutes news program. At this time she won her second Peabody Award, an annual international award given for excellence in radio and television broadcasting. Christiane Amanpour is based in London with the CNN broadcasting company from where she is frequently located to some of the most dangerous conflict zones and hotspots in the world including Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, Somalia, Rwanda and the Balkans, to name just a few.

As such, has been recognized as one of the top 100 Most Powerful Women. Her sister, Lizzy is also involved in the world of television, although her forte is on the other side of the camera as a producer for British television broadcaster, Channel 4. During her career many of Christiane’s assignments have included exclusive interviews with some of the world’s most influential leaders including, Yasser Arafat, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Ayatollah Khomeini and George W Bush. Amanpour is known to be critical of the Bush Administration for its handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and of its occupation of Iraq.

With Christiane’s fluent command of the English, Persian, and French languages, she has become an asset to international reporting along with other CNN reporters such as Anderson Cooper who mastered Vietnamese while studying in Vietnam.


Christiane was married in 1998 to James Rubin who was a spokesman for the US State Department and now works for Sky TV in the U.K. Together they have one son, Darius, who was born in 2000. The family are based in London.


In June 2007 Queen Elizabeth II named Christiane in her birthday Honours list and bestowed a CBE on the CNN reporter for her contribution to journalism.


Although Chrisitiane has Iranian heritage she has no affiliation with the Muslim religion and is actually a Christian.

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