Oprah Gail Winfrey (born January 29, 1954) is an American television host, producer, and philanthropist, who has influenced the world through her thoughts and beliefs via her hugely successful talk show the Oprah Winfrey Show. She has educated and influenced her global audience on topics such as health and well-being, literature, self-improvement, spirituality, politics, history, world culture, philanthropy, fashion, education, finance, relationships and love, and allowed us to enter into the lives and homes of many celebrities. She has helped revolutionize the daytime talk show into informative shows that help to educate her audience.

She has been ranked the richest women of the 20th century and beyond, one of the greatest philanthropist in American history, and arguably the most influential woman in the world.

Winfrey was born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a teenage single mother and experienced considerable hardship during her childhood, including being raped at the age of nine and becoming pregnant at 14; her son died in infancy. Sent to live with the man she calls her father, Winfrey landed a job in radio while still in high school and began co-anchoring the local evening news at the age of 19. Her emotional ad-lib delivery eventually got her transferred to the daytime talk show arena, and after boosting a third-rated local Chicago talk show to first place she launched her own production company and became internationally syndicated.

CAREER AND SUCCESS

· Presents the morning talk show, AM Chicago 1983

· 1984 AM Chicago renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show and climbs in the rankings to the number one day-time talk show in America 1986

· 1993, Winfrey hosted a rare prime-time interview with Michael Jackson, which became the fourth most watched event in American television history, with an audience of one hundred million.

· Introduces Dr. Phil McGraw (psychologist) on the Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss mental health and helps to launch his own show, Dr. Phil, in 2004.

· Winfrey hosted the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Concert with Tom Cruise. December 23, 2004

· Co-founded the women’s cable television network Oxygen

· President of Harpo Productions (Oprah spelled backwards).

· In 1985, Winfrey co-starred in Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Color Purple and nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress,

· In October 1998, Winfrey produced and starred in the film Beloved

· She has voiced for Charlotte’s Web, the 2006 film

· In 2009, Winfrey provided the voice for the character of Eudora, the mother of Princess Tiana, in Disney’s The Princess and the Frog.

· In 2010, Winfrey narrated the US version of the BBC nature program Life for Discovery.

· Winfrey publishes two magazines: O, The Oprah Magazine and O at Home.

· Oprah.com is a website created by Winfrey’s company to provide resources and interactive content relating to her shows, magazines, book club, and public charity.

· Initiated “Oprah’s Child Predator Watch List”

· 2006 establish a new radio channel. The channel, Oprah Radio

Philanthropy

In 1998, Winfrey began Oprah’s Angel Network, a charity aimed at encouraging people around the world to make a difference in the lives of underprivileged others. Oprah’s Angel Network supports charitable projects and provides grants to nonprofit organizations around the world that share this vision. To date, Oprah’s Angel Network has raised more than $51,000,000. Winfrey personally covers all administrative costs associated with the charity, so 100% of all funds raised go to charity programs.

Although Winfrey’s show is known for raising money through her public charity and the cars and gifts she gives away on TV are often donated by corporations in exchange for publicity, behind the scenes Winfrey personally donates more of her own money to charity than any other show-business celebrity in America. In 2005 she became the first black person listed by Business Week as one of America’s top 50 most generous philanthropists, having given an estimated $303 million. Winfrey was the 32nd most philanthropic. She has also been repeatedly ranked as the most philanthropic celebrity.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Oprah asked her viewers to open their hearts—and they did. As of September 2006, donations to the Oprah Angel Network Katrina registry total more than $11 million. Homes have been built in four states—Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama—before the one year anniversary of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Winfrey also matched her viewers’ donations by personally giving $10 million to the cause.

Winfrey has also helped 250 African-American men continue or complete their education at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.

Winfrey was the recipient of the first Bob Hope Humanitarian Award at the 2002 Emmy Awards for services to television and film.

Winfrey invested $40 million and some of her time establishing the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls near Johannesburg, South Africa. The school opened in January 2007. Nelson Mandela praised Winfrey for overcoming her own disadvantaged youth to become a benefactor for others and for investing in the future of South Africa.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprah