Oprah Winfrey Biography and Works.

Oprah Winfrey, born on January 29, 1954, is an American businesswoman, media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. She is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011.

She has been ranked the richest African American of the 20th century, the greatest black philanthropist in American history. She was, for a time, world’s only black billionaire. She is also been titled as the most influential woman in the world.

Winfrey was born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a teenage single mother. She experienced hardships during her childhood, claiming to be raped at the age of nine and becoming pregnant at 14, her son died in infancy.

Winfrey was sent to live with the man she calls her father, who is a barber in Tennessee. She started working in radio while still in high school and began co-anchoring the local evening news at the age of 19.

Her emotional delivery eventually got her transferred to the daytime talk-show arena. After boosting a third-rated local Chicago talk show to first place, she launched her own production company and became internationally syndicated.

Trivia

Winfrey was originally named ‘Orpah’ after the Biblical character in the Book of Ruth but her family and friends didn’t know how to pronounce it and started calling her, ‘Oprah’ instead.