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Oprah Winfrey, the reigning "Queen of Daytime" was born January 29, 1954 in Kosciusko, Mississippi, and began working in local radio while still in school.

Smart, dynamic and engaging, Winfrey attended Tennessee State University in 1971 to study speech and performing arts, and the following year entered and won the Miss Black Tennessee contest.

At 19, she became the youngest person - and the first African-American woman - to anchor the news at Nashville's WTVF-TV. She later co-anchored for Baltimore's WJZ-TV six o'clock news before co-hosting their local talk show, People Are Talking.

Winfrey's first foray into hosting/producing came in 1986, with a solid hit on Chicago's WLS-TV's The Oprah Winfrey Show that went on to become the highest-rated talk show in TV history with a weekly audience of 26 million.

Not limiting her appearances to the small screen, Winfrey later starred in the Steven Spielberg blockbuster The Color Purple in 1985 and in the less successful Beloved in 1998.

Today, her talk show continues to be broadcast in 112 countries and remains the most popular on the planet.

Winfrey has translated that popularity into a multimillion dollar empire and her own production studio, along with inclusion into the upper reaches of influence as one of America's wealthiest people.

Oprah in the News

In late November 2005, Winfrey made worldwide headlines for having made peace with talk show host David Letterman when the King of Late Night booked the Queen of Daytime on The Late Show with David Letterman.

Letterman has often and irreverently poked fun at Winfrery for her refusal to appear on his show, a fact based on Winfrey's rumored dislike for Letterman's brand of humor.

Her appearance on December 1 ended a long-standing feud between the pair which, according to reports, was especially timed to promote the Winfrey-produced The Color Purple on Broadway that premiered in New York the same night.

Early in 2006, Winfrey's credibility was called into question over a scandal in which she publicly praised James Frey's memoir, "A Million Little Pieces." a story of drug abuse and recovery that became one of the best-selling books of 2005 after Winfrey named it to her book club. The memoir was later revealed by Smoking Gun to be "riddled with lies." (Winfrey later confronted Frey on the issue in a famous live telecast in which the author apologized saying, "I made a mistake." )

In 2007, Winfrey has returned to her radio station roots by signing a three-year, $55 million agreement with XM Satellite Radio to establish a new radio channel, to be called Oprah & Friends. The new channel will feature health & fitness topics and include a weekly radio show hosted by Winfrey and friend Gayle King.

Her media empire also includes plans for a cable network, set to start up in 2009 as OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network which will replace the ailing Discovery Health Channel. TV pundits surmise that Winfrey will jump to cable once her talk show contract ends in 2010.

Off screen, Winfrey has thrown her considerable resources behind 2008 presidential candidate Barack Obama, with plans to stump for the charismatic African-American candidate on the campaign trail throughout the coming year.

Most recenlty, Oprah also made her first foray into primetime reality TV programming with another big hit, Oprah's Big Give, featuring contestants in a competition to see who can win the chance to give away $1 million to a charitable cause.

Oprah.com - What's coming up on the popular talk show, together with inspirational stories and feature articles, details on Oprah's Angel Network and how you can help, the cyber edition of O The Oprah Magazine, an invitation to the Oprah Book Club, online forums and more.

Oprah Winfrey.de - A major fan with a major site, featuring links to over a dozen different Oprah biographies, Oprah theme audio clips, interviews, quotes and trivia, including an extensive photo gallery chronicling her life and career.

TMZ.com - Oprah - The online gossip sheet with all the latest buzz, news & photos.rumors and threatened lawsuits against the richest woman in television, along with back-office dirt at "O" Magazine, related video clips.

Oprah Winfrey - Wikipedia - The online encyclopedia with a hyperlinked autobiography and related links.

Oprah Winfrey - Academy of Achievement - Complete biography, pictures, quotes.

Oprah Winfrey News - Headline news about the talk show host from various sources around the Web, from Topix.net.

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