The latest addition to NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams is TODAY‘s Natalie Morales. Morales joins Williams, Harry Smith, Kate Snow, Ted Koppel, Meredith Vieira, Richard Engel, Dr. Nancy Snyderman, Matt Lauer and Ann Curry on the hour-long newsmagazine show, which is premiering on October 31, 2011. The series airs at 10pm and will cover “provocative” events as well as feature interviews with newsmakers.
Steve Capus, President of NBC News, made the announcement, stating, “A familiar face at NBC News, Natalie brings a breadth of experience to Rock Center with Brian Williams. Not only has she been in the trenches with her award-winning reporting, she brings curiosity and compassion to the stories that she tells, and we’re thrilled to have her on board with this new broadcast.”
More on Natalie Morales [Courtesy of NBC]:
In addition to her new role as a correspondent on Rock Center with Brian Williams, Morales will continue as the news anchor of TODAY and co-host of the third hour, a position she’s held since March 2006. Prior to TODAY, Morales was a national correspondent for NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams and Dateline; she was also an anchor at MSNBC from 2002-2006 where she covered major world events including the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
While at NBC News, Morales has reported on and contributed to several major breaking news stories including the Chilean miner rescue — coverage that was seen worldwide and recognized with a 2010 National Headliner Award, the 2009 presidential inauguration; the Southern California wildfires; the Minneapolis bridge collapse; Hurricane Katrina and the recovery efforts; the Tsunami disaster; the death of Pope John Paul II; the 2004 presidential election; the 2010, 2006 and 2004 Olympics; and the Columbia Shuttle explosion. And in 2010 and 2011, she was awarded a Daytime Emmy award as part of TODAY’s recognition as the best morning news program.
Morales began her career in broadcast journalism in 1998 at News 12 – The Bronx, where she shot, produced, and edited her own reports. And she was the morning co-anchor and correspondent at NBC’s WVIT in Hartford, Connecticut from 1999 – 2002.
Morales, who speaks Spanish and Portuguese, was born in Taiwan and spent much of the first 18 years of her life living overseas in Panama, Brazil and Spain as an Air Force brat. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rutgers University, New Jersey, with dual majors in journalism and Latin American studies. She was a Phi Beta Kappa and graduated Summa Cum Laude. Morales currently resides in New Jersey with her husband and two sons.
