Oprah Winfrey (Orpah Gail Winfrey, born 29 January 1954) is an American broadcaster, actress, producer and philanthropist. She hosted The Oprah Winfrey Show, which ran nationally from 1986 to 2011 and was the highest-rated daytime talk show in the United States. She founded the production company Harpo and the television channel OWN. In April 2026 Forbes ranked her first on its list of the greatest living self-made Americans. This biography follows her life and career up to November 2026.
Oprah Winfrey at a Glance
| Full name | Orpah Gail Winfrey |
| Born | 29 January 1954, Kosciusko, Mississippi, United States |
| Age | 72 (as of November 2026) |
| Profession | Television host, producer, actress, author and philanthropist |
| Education | Tennessee State University (communications) |
| Companies | Harpo Productions (chair and CEO since 1986); OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network (launched 1 January 2011) |
| Honours | Presidential Medal of Freedom (2013); Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award |
| Net worth | About $3.4 billion (Forbes real-time estimate, 10 November 2026) |
| Partner | Stedman Graham (together since 1986) |
Early Life
Winfrey was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi, to a teenage mother and was raised by her maternal grandmother for the first six years of her life in rural poverty. She then lived with her mother in Milwaukee before going to live with her father, Vernon Winfrey, in Nashville, Tennessee, where she settled. Her name was originally spelt Orpah on her birth certificate, but people kept mispronouncing it as Oprah and the name stuck. She won the Miss Black Tennessee pageant at 17 and worked at a Nashville radio station while still in school. She later studied communications at Tennessee State University.
From Newsreader to Talk Show Host
Winfrey became the youngest person and the first Black woman to anchor the news at Nashville's WLAC-TV, and in 1976 she moved to Baltimore's WJZ-TV. In Baltimore she was moved off the news desk and given a talk show, People Are Talking, in 1978. She moved to Chicago in 1984 to host AM Chicago on WLS-TV, which overtook the established Donahue as the city's highest-rated talk show within months. The programme was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show, expanded to an hour and launched nationally on 8 September 1986. It ended on 25 May 2011. During its run it won many Emmy Awards, and her 1993 interview with Michael Jackson was watched by 36.5 million viewers.
Film, Business and Media
Winfrey was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Color Purple and later produced and starred in Beloved (1998). Her company Harpo Productions has produced television and film projects since 1986, and in 1996 she began Oprah's Book Club, which became a major force in publishing. She launched OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network with Discovery Communications on 1 January 2011 and produced the stage musical of The Color Purple, which opened on Broadway in 2005.
Wealth and Philanthropy
Forbes has described Winfrey as a self-made billionaire with a Self-Made Score of 10, and on 10 November 2026 its real-time estimate put her fortune at about $3.4 billion, ranking her 1,216th in the world. She was first named a billionaire by Forbes in 2003, becoming the first Black woman to reach that level. Her philanthropy includes the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls near Johannesburg, which opened in 2007 and from which more than 500 girls have graduated. On 29 July 2026 she announced that the school will close at the end of 2027, and that her foundation will expand a national scholarship programme for academically talented girls. In 2013 President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Personal Life
Winfrey has been with Stedman Graham since 1986, and they became engaged in November 1992 but never married. She became a mother at 14, but her son was born prematurely and died shortly after birth. She has been open about the way her childhood trauma shaped her.
Legacy
Winfrey changed daytime television by making it personal and conversational, and her endorsement could turn a book into a bestseller. Her rise from poverty in Mississippi to the top of the Forbes ranking of self-made Americans has made her a symbol of what can be achieved through media and business.
