Natalie Morales is the West Coast anchor of NBC News’ TODAY, host of NBCUniversal’s “Access Hollywood” and co-host of “Access Hollywood Live.” She previously served as news anchor and co-host of TODAY’s third-hour. She joined TODAY in 2006 as a national correspondent and has reported for all NBC News platforms including NBC Nightly News, Dateline NBC and MSNBC.
Morales has contributed to several major breaking news stories, including coverage of the royal wedding in 2011 and the birth of Prince George in 2013. In October 2010, Morales live-translated and reported on the Chilean miner rescue — coverage that was seen worldwide and recognized with a 2010 National Headliner Award. In August 2008, Morales had the exclusive jailhouse interview with the infamous “Clark Rockefeller.” Her other notable reports include the 2009 presidential inauguration; Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005; the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami; the death of Pope John Paul II in 2005 and the election of Pope Francis in 2013.
Morales has also landed many exclusive celebrity interviews, including Angelina Jolie, who revealed she was having twins, and Kelly Preston, in her first television interview after the birth of her and John Travolta’s son, Benjamin. Other news-making interviews include Caitlyn Jenner on life after her transition; singer Sam Smith on recovering from a vocal cord injury; Jennifer Lopez on her career and family. Morales has been an integral part of the network’s coverage of the Winter and Summer Olympics since 2004.
As a part of TODAY’s Shine a Light Campaign in 2014, Morales ran in the Boston Marathon and raised over $70,000 for victims of the 2013 bombing. Morales has won three Daytime Emmy Awards as part of TODAY’s recognition as the best morning news program. She was a member of the “Rock Center with Brian Williams” team that won a Robert F. Kennedy Award for their lobster divers story in June of 2013, and she was also honored with the 2013 Gracie Award for Outstanding Series for her Dateline series, My Kid Would Never. Additionally, “Hispanic Magazine” named her one of the “Top Hispanics to Watch” in 2005 and one of the “Top Trendsetters” of 2003.
Morales, who speaks Spanish and Portuguese, was born in Taiwan and spent much of the first 18 years of her life living overseas in Panama, Brazil and Spain as an Air Force “brat.” She graduated summa cum laude from Rutgers University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and Latin American studies and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband and two sons.
Morales is on Twitter at @NMoralesNBC.