O'Brien, Soledad

Soledad O’Brien is an award-winning documentarian, journalist, speaker, author, and philanthropist, and founder of Soledad O’Brien Productions, a media production company dedicated to telling empowering and authentic stories on a range of social issues. She anchors and produces "Matter of Fact with Soledad O'Brien," a Hearst political magazine program seen in 95% of the country. She was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of fame in May 2023.   

Soledad has a national impact through her podcasts, social media, speeches and books, including her critically acclaimed memoir “The Next Big Story” and her 1.3 million followers on X. She gave Congressional testimony on media disinformation during the pandemic. She has anchored shows and specials on CNN, MSNBC, Nat Geo, BET, ABC, and CBS, co-anchored NBC’s Weekend Today and reported for PBS NewsHour and HBO Real Sports..  

Her most recent projects include her top-rated IHeart podcast “Who Killed JFK '' with Rob Reiner and her documentary “The End of Affirmative Action" which streamed on CBS, Paramount + and YouTube. She is Executive Producer of  the Peabody-Award winning documentary, “The Rebellious Life of Rosa Parks” which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and streams on Peacock, and the multi-part series “Black and Missing”, which won the Independent Spirit and NAACP awards and streams on HBO. Soledad O’ Brien Productions has also produced documentaries for Discovery Plus, CNN, BET, PBS, and others. She also works with major foundations, like the Ford Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to produce impactful documentaries on topics like hunger, race and education. 

O’Brien’s work has been recognized with four Emmy awards, three times with the George Foster Peabody Award, four times with the Gracie Award, which honors women in media, twice with Cine Awards for her work in documentary films and with an Alfred I. DuPont Award.  

She founded the PowHerful foundation in 2011 which has helped dozens of young women get to and through college and connects with thousands of others through regional mentoring conferences.