Oprah Winfrey's Life

Oprah would’ve developed as an average child for example being able to ride a bike.

Fantasia Barrino was born June 30, 1984 to her proud parents Diane and Joseph Barrino (Fonseca, 2006). She is a black American woman that was raised in High Point, North Carolina. She grew up in a Christian family home with a mother, father and two brothers. She attended church every Sunday and started out singing in the church choir at a very young age. Fantasia and her family traveled from city to city to perform and record gospel music. Music played a huge part in Fantasia Barrino family life. Majority of the family members sang gospel music as well as soul music. She attended Andrews High School during her teenage years. She won the American Idol title in 2004 after showing the world that she has a voice.

By the time she graduated, she had earned a full scholarship to the University of Tennessee. She became the youngest female African-American news anchor in Nashville, Tennessee at the age of nineteen. She soon moved on to Baltimore, Maryland as a co-anchor. She was eventually fired from this job but that did not last long as she landed a job with a failing talk show “A.M. Chicago.” She turned the show into the number one rated talk show in Chicago and within three years the show was renamed the “Oprah Winfrey Show.” In 1986, she negotiated to own the “Oprah Winfrey Show” and founded Harpo (Oprah spelled backwards) Productions. The show ran for twenty-five years and won sixteen daytime Emmy

Oprah Winfrey achieved great success in her various endeavors, growing from a news reporter in Nashville to the world-famous talk show host she is today. During the 1980s, talk shows were a crucial part of daytime television. Shows were organized based upon their content and varied greatly in subject. The popularity of talk shows led many people to enter this field, leading to a constant struggle for airtime. Oprah’s rise to fame began when she moved from her hometown in Nashville, to college in Baltimore and ultimately to Chicago, where she lives today. She appeared on an early morning television program called A.M. Chicago, which was later retitled The Oprah Winfrey Show which aired its

Actress, Director, Entrepreneur, Philanthropy Forbes 400: #211, Net Worth: $3.1 Billion D.O.B: January 29, 1954, age: 61 Millionaire @ age 32 Average Yearly Income: $260 Mil Featured Shows on OWN Super Soul Sunday | Belief | IYANLA (Fix My Life) Film, Other Media, Publishing “Little Speaker” & “The Preacher” - Bible verses Collaborations: Tyler Perry's “Haves and have nots” “If loving you is wrong” Movies: “The Color Purple”-1985 Steven Spielberg then Broadway Musical 2008 “Beloved-about slavery-losing $30mil @ Box Office”,“Selma” Oprah Magazine - “2004-2008” - O at Home - start up Book club: Co-authored 5 books Oprah Radio Feb 2006, Contract $55mil XM Satellite Queen of Daytime Television Oprah Winfrey Show from AM Chicago:

Time named Oprah Winfrey one of the most important people of the mtwentieth century. In 1998 Entertainment Weekly also ranked her first in its annual list of the most influential people in Hollywood. In 1997 Newsweek named her the most important person in books and media, and TV. She received the George Foster Peabody Individual Achievement Award and the International Radio and Television Society (IRTS) Gold Medal Award in 1996, as well as the National Academy of Television Arts and Science's Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998. The first African American woman to own her own production studio, Winfrey revolutionized television talk show.

Eleanor Roosevelt was born in 1884 in New York City to socialites Elliot Bulloch Roosevelt and Anna Rebecca Hall. She was born into a world of immense wealth and privilege that she didn’t really fit into or understand. Her mother died in 1892 and after a long battle with alcoholism, her father leapt to his death from a sanitarium window in 1894. After so much death at a young age, Eleanor was prone to bouts of melancholy and depression throughout her life.

Oprah Winfrey grew up in a world of adversity, despite her early accomplishments as a gifted child. She began her career in 1976, when she moved to Baltimore to join WJZ-TV News. (Oprah Winfrey Biography, 2011) Her empathetic personality made her many friends, and she was invited to Chicago in 1984 to begin hosting a half-hour morning program. Within a year, she had turned the AM Chicago radio show into the most important radio show in town, and was soon expanded to a full one-hour format. During this time, Oprah struggled with the stereotype that as a black woman she would always be an assistant anchor on the news, or simply a well-spoken host of a talk show. This could not have been further from the truth, as Oprah was able to create her own format for excellence in all forms of media, not simply talk or television. The show was renamed the Oprah Winfrey Show in 1985, and kept that name for twenty-five years until she retired the show in 2010.

Winfrey’s real name is Ohpar and because every one mispronounced it regularly and Oprah stuck.

Oprah spoke at churches and events for a short period of time as a child, and she made up to $500 each public speaking engagement (Fry).She then grew up, and continued to work hard to open doors for her future. Oprah entered a beauty pageant for Miss Fire prevention, and she won being the first black winner of the pageant. Winning this pageant helped Oprah receive a scholarship to college (Fry). Oprah Attended Tennessee State University on a full scholarship (Oprah Winfrey). During her time at Tennessee State Oprah began working in television and radio (Oprah Winfrey).

Both of these inspirational women came from different backgrounds in their lives before fame. After her birth, Oprah’s parents separated, leading to her living with her grandmother, mother, and father for different periods of time throughout her childhood (Encyclopedia). While living with her mother, she suffered continued sexual abuse by trusted members of her family and eventually went back to living with her father, who provided her with guidance, valued education, and was very strict (Encyclopedia). Similarly, Ellen’s parents divorced when she was a teenager; she had a strong relationship with her mother, but was molested by her stepfather before she graduated from high school (Wang). Due to her father’s guidance and encouragement, Oprah won a scholarship to Tennessee State University and became a co-anchor of the evening news (Encyclopedia). Ellen dropped out of college at the University of New Orleans after only a semester to pursue comedy; she expressed large comical talent and acted on television sitcoms (Wang). Oprah hosted her morning show, “A.M. Chicago” in Baltimore, and surpassed Phil Donahue in ratings (Oprah Winfrey Biography). Her success escalated when she launched the Oprah Winfrey Show in 1986 as a nationally syndicated program. DeGeneres came out as gay as both herself

In today’s day and age one of the most influential women and people is Oprah Winfrey. Oprah has had a big impact on today’s society and played a huge role in advancing it. Oprah Winfrey is a talk show host, producer, actress and philanthropist who are widely respected around the world. By becoming one of the biggest names in talk show history Oprah has paved the way for others and became one of the more popular women in talk show history. Her willingness to help others and to be sure others are guided in positive light shows how much passion she has to see the greater good in others. Oprah’s biggest role comes from helping to pursue the advancement of young women and girls. Oprah has taken the time to see to it that young women are out of poverty and opening up a brand new school for underprivileged females to see to it that they have the same opportunity that children in America and other parts of the world have. Being that African- Americans, let alone women were not seen as marketable, Oprah helped to change this dynamic early in her career by using her platform in communication to open doors for other people. Winfrey’s work over a number of years is the single most evident reason why she has been able to be successful in the field of mass communication. Oprah is one of the most influential women of our time because of how well she is able to contribute to the human rights of women and advancing them in today’s society.

Oprah Winfrey is the most successful woman to ever live. Her world famous talk show has spanned decades and she has an abounding amount of accomplishments to her name. Many people view her as an iconic role model; a perfect woman of some sorts. Oprah is extremely talented, beautiful, and an amazing woman who has proven herself to be one of the most influential voices in the world throughout our time. The power of her opinions have influenced how many people think, and she continues to set the standard as a philanthropist and peace maker. Most people who know of Oprah would probably not affiliate anything negative with her at all. While it may be true that Oprah is a very positive woman now, this was not always the case. In fact, Oprah had to go through a long childhood path of struggle, poverty, and even crime to get to where she is today. Oprah was abused as a child, and her resulting anger and frustration created a young girl who we would not be very acceptive of today. Yet despite her difficult childhood, Oprah Winfrey was able to take the words of her father and rise above her struggles, reinventing herself into the woman we all know and love today.

I believe this point in time was important because she showed that no matter the color of your skin or where you came from you can still be successful in life. I used the 3 following points to demonstrate this turning point in time: one’s background doesn’t dictate one’s future success, having the courage to follow one’s goals, and creating a culture of giving back to the community. Throughout Winfrey’s career she has been told that she wouldn’t make it far and that she is unfit for television. Even though she was told that, she never let that stop her from achieving in life. This is why I aspire to be like Oprah, but even better. I hope I can be half the person she was. Even though Winfrey made it far in life she never forgot where she came from, she gave back to the community. Across the nation has donated to millions to different organizations across the

Oprah started her own book club called “Oprah’s Book Club”. Her book club propelled many unknown authors to the best selling list. In her club, she would chose books for her viewers to read and discuss about (Mulkerrins). Her club help sell those books and millions of copies were sold. With the influence her book club had spread all the way to Brazil. Her club had so much success on books that some of the books were soon made into films. Her club ended when she ended the talk show. She wrote the book The Uncommon Wisdom of Oprah Winfrey: A Portrait in Her Own Words with Bill Adler. She was also the co-author of the book Journey to Beloved. She helped write books on building a better body figure and wrote some books on her life (Oprah Winfrey Timeline). Reading all these books in her book club, Oprah said reading Angelou’s books was a teaching to her. “One of my greatest wisdom teachings is to assess from people’s behaviors, their actions - not just towards me but to other people - who they are and how they behave,” Oprah Winfrey said. Oprah also said that business and personal relationships has been her greatest lesson (Mejia). Writing books and helping her fans proved that women can be