Julie Chen Moonves facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Julie Chen Moonves
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Chen in 2009
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Julie Suzanne Chen
January 6, 1970 New York City, U.S.
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| Education | University of Southern California (BA) |
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| Years active | 1990–present |
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| Children | 1 |
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| Traditional Chinese | 陳曉怡 | ||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 陈晓怡 | ||||||||||
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Julie Suzanne Chen Moonves was born on January 6, 1970. She is an American television host, news anchor, and producer. You might know her best as the host of the American TV show Big Brother. She has hosted the show since it first started in July 2000.
From 2002 to 2010, Julie was also a co-anchor on The Early Show on CBS. In 2004, she married Les Moonves, who was an executive at CBS. After some time, she started using her married name, Chen Moonves. She began signing off Big Brother episodes with "I'm Julie Chen Moonves, goodnight." This was a change from her usual "Julie Chen."
In 2018, Julie Chen Moonves wrote her first book for children. It was called When I Grow Up and was dedicated to her son, Charlie.
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Early Life and School
Julie Chen was born in Queens, New York City. Her parents were immigrants from China. Her mother, Wang Ling Chen, grew up in Yangon, which is in Myanmar. Her father, David Chen, was born in China. He later moved to Taiwan after the Chinese Civil War.
Julie's grandfather, Lou Gaw Tong, grew up very poor in a village in China. He became rich by opening many grocery stores. Julie has two older sisters named Gladys and Victoria.
Julie went to junior high school in the Whitestone area of Queens. She graduated from St. Francis Preparatory School in 1987. She then went to the University of Southern California. She graduated in 1991 with a major in broadcast journalism and English.
Julie Chen's Career in TV
Julie Chen started her career in television early. In June 1990, she worked as an intern at CBS Morning News. She answered phones and copied faxes. Later, she would become an anchor for that same show.
The next year, while still in college, she worked for ABC NewsOne. She was a desk assistant for one season. After that, she became a producer for three years. In 1995, she moved to Dayton, Ohio, to work as a local news reporter for WDTN-TV. She stayed there until 1997.
In 2015, Julie shared a story on The Talk. She said that when she was in Dayton, her news director told her she could not be a news anchor. He said it was because of her "Asian eyes." A famous agent agreed and suggested she get plastic surgery. Julie decided to have a surgical procedure to change the shape of her eyes.
Working at CBS News
From 1999 to 2002, Julie Chen was the anchor of CBS Morning News. She was also a news anchor for CBS This Morning and later The Early Show. She worked with other anchors like Bryant Gumbel and Harry Smith.
From 2002 to 2010, she was a co-host of The Early Show. She later left her daily role but continued as a special contributing anchor. Before working at CBS News, she was a reporter and weekend anchor at WCBS-TV in New York City.
Hosting Big Brother
Since 2000, Julie Chen has been the host of the American version of Big Brother. During the first season in 2000, some people criticized her hosting style. They said she sounded too scripted. This led to her nickname, "Chenbot."
Julie has said in interviews that she doesn't mind the nickname. She thinks it might come from her "precise on-air style." She says this style comes from wanting to be fair and objective. She even joked about it on The Early Show, saying, "I am the Chenbot!"
The Talk and Other Shows
Julie Chen was also a moderator and co-host of the CBS Daytime talk show, The Talk. This show started on October 18, 2010. The original hosts included Julie Chen, the show's creator Sara Gilbert, Sharon Osbourne, Leah Remini, Holly Robinson Peete, and Marissa Jaret Winokur.
Julie said that Remini and Robinson Peete complained about her to CBS. They asked for her to be removed from the show. Instead, those two actresses left after the first season. Julie says she has since made up with them.
In her 2023 audiobook, But First, God: An Audio Memoir of Spiritual Discovery, Julie shared more about leaving The Talk. She said that before Season 9 of the show started, she was told that two of her co-hosts did not want her to come to work. So, she was asked not to return. Her co-hosts at that time were Gilbert, Osbourne, Sheryl Underwood, and Eve.
Personal Life
After graduating from the University of Southern California, Julie Chen became a news assistant for ABC News in Los Angeles in 1991. She later met and married Les Moonves. They were married in a private ceremony in Acapulco, Mexico, on December 23, 2004.
On September 24, 2009, Julie and Les welcomed their son, Charlie.
In September 2013, Julie shared on The Talk that she had a surgical procedure on her eyes early in her career. She said a news director and an agent pressured her to look "less Asian." Julie said this decision "divided" her family. But she also said she has to "live with every decision that I've made." She added that it helped her get to where she is today, and she doesn't regret it.
In November 2018, CBS officially confirmed that Julie Chen Moonves would return to host the second season of Celebrity Big Brother. They used her full married name, "Julie Chen Moonves," in their announcement.
In her audiobook, But First, God: An Audio Memoir of Spiritual Discovery, released in September 2023, Julie shared that she became a Christian in 2018. She had never been to church before. She told Good Morning America that before she found God, she was "self-absorbed, career-minded, vain, gossipy." She said that now, as Julie Chen Moonves, she wants to help others and be kind to everyone.
Books
- Chen Moonves, Julie (2023). But First, God: An Audio Memoir of Spiritual Discovery. Simon & Schuster Audio Originals. ISBN: 1797158554
