10 Interesting Facts About Anderson Cooper

By Alyssa Pflug

With Anderson Cooper coming to Youngstown on Saturday September 24, we took a look into some interesting facts that not many people may know about the journalist.

  1. He is not a professional journalist – Cooper graduated from Yale University in 1989 with a Bachelors in political science, and began reporting by going to Burma and making videos he was able to sell to Channel One News.
  2. He’s the first openly LGBT+ person to moderate a presidential debate — Cooper has been in a relationship since 2009 with gay bar owner Benjamin Maisani.
  3. He has written two books – In 2016, in correspondence with his mother Gloria Vanderbilt, Cooper wrote The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son on Life, Love, and Loss. His first book, Dispatches from the Edge: A Memoir of Wars, Disaster, and Survival was published in 2006.
  4. He interned with the CIA – During his college years, Cooper interned with the CIA bringing new light to his investigative journalism skills.
  5. He has won nine Emmys –Cooper has received 9 Emmy Awards in total, two of which for his coverage of the Earthquake in Haiti
  6. He saved a life – While reporting the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, a young boy was hit in the head by a rock and Cooper saved his life.
  7. He made his TV debut at age three – Cooper appeared with his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson when he was still a toddler.
  8. He’s contracted malaria – After graduating from the Dalton School in New York, Cooper took a “survival trip” to Africa where he ended up contracting malaria and had to be hospitalized in Kenya during the trip.
  9. He’s known for his salt and pepper hair – Cooper’s naturally brown hair began turning gray at the age of 20.
  10. He’s a world traveler – Since starting his career in 1992, Cooper has worked in more than 40 different countries.