Alex Wagner | |
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 Wagner in 2018 | |
| Born | Alexandra Swe Wagner (1977-11-27)November 27, 1977 (age 48) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Education | Brown University (BA) |
| Occupation |
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| Children | 2 |
Alexandra Swe Wagner (born November 27, 1977) is an American journalist and television host. She is a senior political analyst and was the host ofAlex Wagner TonightonMSNBC. She is the author ofFutureFace: A Family Mystery, an Epic Quest, and the Secret to Belonging (One World/Random House). She was a contributor forCBS News and is a contributing editor atThe Atlantic.[1][2] In 2022, she hosted the first season ofNetflix'sThe Mole reboot.[3] Previously, she was the anchor of the daytime programNow with Alex Wagner (2011–2015), the evening programAlex Wagner Tonight (2022-2025), onMSNBC, and the co-host ofThe Circus onShowtime.[4] From November 2016 until March 2018, she was a TV co-anchor onCBS This Morning Saturday. She has also been a senior editor atThe Atlantic magazine since April 2016.[5]
After serving as a fill-in host for bothThe Rachel Maddow Show andAll In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC, she began hostingAlex Wagner Tonight on August 16, 2022.[6]
Alex Wagner was born and raised inWashington, D.C. Her mother, Tin Swe Thant, is animmigrant fromYangon,Myanmar, who became a naturalizedU.S. citizen before attendingSwarthmore College.[7] Her father, Carl Wagner, fromLansing,Iowa, was ofLuxembourgish,German andIrish descent and was a graduate ofLoras College inDubuque, Iowa. He was a prominentDemocratic Party political consultant who co-chairedBill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign.[8][9][10] She attendedWoodrow Wilson High School (renamed Jackson-Reed in 2022)[11] and graduated fromBrown University in 1999, having studied art history and literature.[12][13] Wagner was raisedRoman Catholic.[14]
Wagner has worked as the cultural correspondent for theCenter for American Progress.[15] From 2003 to 2007, she was editor-in-chief ofThe Fader magazine, covering music and cultural movements from around the world.[16] She also served as executive director ofNot on Our Watch Project, an advocacy organization focused on mass atrocities and human rights violations.[16]
Wagner then became theWhite House correspondent forPolitics Daily, a political news magazine underAOL News.[16] She moved toThe Huffington Post after it was acquired byAOL.[17]
As an analyst onMSNBC, Wagner appeared onCountdown with Keith Olbermann, andThe Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell.[18]
On November 14, 2011, Wagner began hostingNow with Alex Wagner weekdays (originally at noon ET, but later at 4 PM ET).[19] On July 30, 2015, MSNBC PresidentPhil Griffin announced that the series had been cancelled in an effort to transition the network's daytime programming to more breaking news reporting and less political commentary and opinion. The next day the program aired its final episode. MSNBC later announced that Wagner would host a weekend program, but those plans were later abandoned.
On April 26, 2016,The Atlantic announced that Wagner was leaving MSNBC to join the magazine as a senior editor. In addition to writing forThe Atlantic, Wagner would moderate events with AtlanticLIVE and help with developing video and TV projects with The Atlantic Studios.[5] In November 2016, Wagner replacedVinita Nair onCBS This Morning Saturday.[20] March 17, 2018, was her last appearance onCBS This Morning Saturday as she confirmed she would be leaving that show to co-hostThe Circus for Showtime, replacingMark Halperin.[21]
In 2020, Wagner launched a podcast withCrooked Media andCadence13 that addressed theCOVID-19 pandemic.[22] In August 2022, Wagner began presentingAlex Wagner Tonight, taking overMaddow's 9 PM slots on Tuesdays through Fridays as the latter scaled back to Mondays only.[6][23] On February 23, 2025, MSNBC announced the cancellation ofAlex Wagner Tonight, alongsideJoy Reid'sThe ReidOut. She remains at MSNBC as a contributor.[24]
On October 23, 2025, Wagner's podcast with Crooked Media, Runaway Country with Alex Wagner, premiered.[25] Wagner is also a regular contributor on Crooked Media's flagshipPod Save America podcast.
Wagner has described herself asprogressive.[26] On matters involvingIsrael, she has said that there is an element of "trepidation that inhibits a robust discussion about Israel in theAmerican media" due to fears of being falsely slurred as ananti-Semite.[27]
On August 30, 2014, Wagner married former White House nutrition policy advisor and assistant chefSam Kass in a ceremony held atBlue Hill at Stone Barns, a restaurant inPocantico Hills, New York.[28] The wedding was attended by then U.S. PresidentBarack Obama and his family, as Kass had been the Obama family personal chef since they lived in Chicago.[28][29] Wagner and Kass' first child was born in 2017.[30] On April 16, 2019, she gave birth to their second son. In 2025, Wagner announced that she and Kass are now divorced.[31][32]
In April 2018,Futureface, her book about herBurmese American ancestry, was published.[21] In 2020, a second version adapted for younger readers was published.
Wagner, who is 34 but looks 26, is young to have her own TV show... "I feel strongly about this as the first-generation American on my mom's side," Wagner says. (Her mother is from Burma, her father, Carl Wagner, from Iowa.)
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