Andy Cohen
Cohen on the set ofWatch What Happens Live! in 2024
Born	Andrew Joseph Cohen (1968-06-02)June 2, 1968 (age 56) St. Louis,Missouri, U.S.
Education	Boston University (BS)
Occupations	Talk show host radio host author producer
Years active	1990–present
Children	2

Andrew Joseph Cohen (born June 2, 1968)^[1] is an American radio and television talk show host, producer, and writer. He is the host and executive producer ofThe Real Housewivesfranchise^[2][3] andBravo's late night talk show,Watch What Happens Live!^[4][5] He also hosts a two-hour show with co-hostJohn Hill twice a week onSirius XM.^[6]

Cohen served as Bravo's executive vice president of Development and Talent until 2013.^[7] He was responsible for creating original content, developing innovative formats, and identifying new talent. Cohen also served as executive producer on theJames Beard award–winning reality cooking competition television show,Top Chef.^[5] He also hosted the revival of the television dating showLove Connection. He has been awarded aPrimetime Emmy Award, and twoPeabody Awards.

Andy was born inSt. Louis,Missouri, to Evelyn and Lou Cohen.^[8] He has a sister, Emily Rosenfeld. He is Jewish, with roots in Poland, Russia, and Lithuania.^[9][10][11] Cohen graduated fromClayton High School in 1986.^[12] He is a graduate ofBoston University, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree inbroadcast journalism.^[13] Cohen wrote for the Boston University student newspaper,The Daily Free Press.^[14] He later interned atCBS News alongsideJulie Chen,^[15][16] who was also working as an intern.^[17]

Cohen began his career in television as an intern at CBS News.^[18] He spent 10 years at the network, eventually serving as senior producer ofThe Early Show, a producer for48 Hours, and a producer forCBS This Morning.^[19] He joined the television networkTrio in 2000,^[20] later becoming vice president of original programming atBravo in 2004,^[21] when the network purchased Trio.^[22]

Cohen was a regular guest onToday andMorning Joe, and has co-hostedLive! with Kelly, andThe View. He has made various guest appearances on other talk shows. He has made several guest appearances on television shows playing himself, such asThe Comeback andSaturday Night Live.^[23] In summer 2009, Cohen began hosting a weekly midnight television talk show,Watch What Happens Live.^[24] The show was later expanded into a weeknight series.^[25]

Cohen'sautobiographical memoirMost Talkative (Henry Holt and Company), released in May 2012,^[8][26] became aNew York Times Best Seller in the hardcover, paperback, and combined non-fiction categories.^[27][28][29]

On August 15, 2013, he declined to co-host theMiss Universe pageant in Russia, due to the country's recent adoption of anti-gay laws.^[30] Before that, he hostedMiss USA 2011 andMiss USA 2012.^[31] On March 22, 2014, he portrayedZeus inLady Gaga's music video for "G.U.Y.".^[32]

In November 2014, Cohen published his second memoir,The Andy Cohen Diaries: A Deep Look at a Shallow Year,^[33] inspired by the similarly titledThe Andy Warhol Diaries. The book spans a year of journal entries beginning in September 2013.^[34]The Andy Cohen Diaries became aTimes Best Seller in the Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction category.^[35]

On September 14, 2015,SiriusXM launched a new radio channel curated by Cohen, known as Radio Andy.^[36] The channel features shows hosted by Cohen (Andy Cohen Live, and Andy Cohen's Deep & Shallow). Cohen also hosts a series of special broadcasts for his station known as Town Halls in front of a live studio audience.^[37][38] The channel also features shows hosted by;Sandra Bernhard,Bevy Smith,Dan Rather,Michelle Collins,Jim Parsons, Jeff Lewis, Amy Phillips,Jonathan Alter (together with his family),John Hill, the producers ofWatch What Happens Live, and the producers atWorld of Wonder. The channel has also produced specials including; Radio Andy Theater, a parody of theReal Housewives franchise,^[39] AC2 Live: Andy and Anderson on the Road (a behind-the-scenes show following Cohen andAnderson Cooper on their live tour), and the Love Connection Diaries (also a backstage docu-series featuring Cohen, andLove Connection producer and Radio Andy host, John Hill).

Cohen and close friendAnderson Cooper announced that they would be going on a national tour to perform their conversational stage showAC2 beginning in March 2015.^[40][41] The tour opened in Boston, followed by Miami Beach, Chicago and Atlanta.^[41] The idea for the show came about after Cooper interviewed Cohen about his then-latest book,The Andy Cohen Diaries, at an event at the92nd Street Y in New York City.^[42][43] Since then, the two-man show has continued to tour reaching over 50 cities as of October 2018.^[44]

On December 31, 2015, Cohen hosted a one-off live edition ofHollywood Game Night (New Year's Eve Game Night), and co-hostedNew Year's Eve with Carson Daly, forNBC.^[45]

In 2016, the publisher Henry Holt and Company announced it was launching the imprint Andy Cohen Books.^[46] Cohen's third memoirSuperficial: More Adventures From the Andy Cohen Diaries was published in November 2016.^[47] A sequel toThe Andy Cohen Diaries,^[48] the book covers diary entries for the subsequent two years.^[49]Superficial became aTimes Best Seller among books written by celebrities.^[50]

In January 2017,Fox ordered a revival ofLove Connection hosted by Cohen.^[51] The hour-long game show premiered on May 25.^[52] The same month, Cohen played himself on theNetflix series,Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.^[53] In August 2017, Fox announced that it would renewLove Connection for a second season.^[54] Later that year, Cohen succeededKathy Griffin as co-host of CNN'sNew Year's Eve coverage alongside Cooper.^[55][56]

In 2018, Cohen played himself on the showRiverdale as a friend of the Lodge family.^[57] He made a March 2018 appearance as a guest judge in an episode of theVH1reality-television seriesRuPaul's Drag Race.^[58]

Since December 2018, Cohen has co-hosted CNN's New Year's Eve coverage with Anderson Cooper.^[59][60]

Cohen is the first openly gay host of an American late-night talk show.^[61] In December 2018, he announced he would become a father in 2019 with the help of a surrogate.^[62] His son, Ben, was born February 4, 2019.^[63] His daughter, Lucy, was born April 29, 2022.^[64]

Cohen supportedKamala Harris in the2024 United States presidential election.^[65]

In response toantisemitism during the Gaza war following theOctober 7 attacks, Cohen declared himself a "proud American Jew" and participated in a two-day summit for Jewish influencers in 2024.^[66]

On April 16, 2022,The Real Housewives Star,Nene Leakes, filed a federal lawsuit againstNBCUniversal,Bravo, production companies True Entertainment and Truly Original, andReal Housewives producerCohen for violating federal employment and anti-discrimination laws.^[67] She dismissed the action and claims on August 19, 2022.^[68]

Early in 2024, formerReal Housewives stars, Brandi Glanville and Leah McSweeney, made headlines when they accused Andy Cohen of sexual harassment and inappropriate and abusive behavior, specifically alleging that he pressured his cast to drink and to do drugs, and made sexually inappropriate comments (the latter for which Cohen reportedly characterized as a joke and apologized).^[69]In March of 2024, an internal investigation by Bravo reportedly found that claims of harassment and misconduct made against Cohen by co-stars and cast on his shows were "unsubstantiated".^[70]

In November of 2024, a federal Judge heard a case brought byReal Housewives star Leah McSweeney against Cohen.^[71]

• 2004,Peabody Award, 2004, as executive producer of theTrio documentaryThe N-Word.^[72][73]
• 2007,Multichannel News' "40 Under 40" broadcasting executives.^[74]
• 2007, Peabody Award, as executive producer of theBravo reality-TV competitionProject Runway.^[75]
• 2010, appeared on theTV Guide "Power List" of talked-about individuals.^[76][77]
• 2010,Emmy Award for Outstanding Competitive Reality Series as executive producer ofTop Chef
• 2012,GQ's "25 Best Dressed Men of the Year",^[78]
• 2012, chosen as one ofBroadcasting & Cable's"Digital All-Stars".^[79]
• 2012 to 2016, listed inOut magazine's list of Most Powerful Gay People.^{[80][81][82][83][84]}
• 2019, received theVito Russo Award at the30th GLAAD Media Awards.^[85]

• Most Talkative: Stories from the Front Lines of Pop Culture.Henry Holt and Company. 2012.ISBN 978-0-8050-9583-8.
• The Andy Cohen Diaries: A Deep Look at a Shallow Year. Henry Holt and Company. 2014.ISBN 978-1-627-79228-8.
• Superficial: More Adventures from the Andy Cohen Diaries. Henry Holt and Company. 2016.ISBN 978-1250116482.
• The Daddy Diaries: The Year I Grew Up. Henry Holt and Company. 2023.ISBN 978-1250890924.

• Broadcast journalism
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• Andy Cohen onFacebook
• Andy Cohen atIMDb
• Watch What Happens Live official website
• Andy Cohen's blog on Bravo
• Andy Cohen atThe Interviews: An Oral History of Television

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