Gideon Yago
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Gideon Yago (born February 19, 1978) is a correspondent and producer for MTV News and CBS News though he is most recognized for his contributions to MTV.
[edit] Background
Yago was born in Madison, Wisconsin to a German mother and a Jewish American father who met in Israel.[1][2] He graduated from Columbia University (where he wrote for the campus magazine The Blue and White and was a Joyce Kilmer Memorial Bad Poetry Contest-winning member of the Philolexian Society) and began working for MTV News during the presidential election of 2000. Yago started on MTV as a contestant on the now defunct game show Idiot Savants in the mid 1990s. (His specialty category was "Colonial America"). A few years later he found a sign recruiting people for MTV. What he ended up signing up for was MTV's Choose or Lose campaign. By the end of his senior year at Columbia, he already had a position at MTV.
Initially, Yago worked primarily as a writer for the MTV News department. From 2002-2003, Yago wrote and produced the MTV News magazine "The Wrap" on MTV2. As his time at MTV progressed, Yago switched gears and began focusing on politics, rather than music, on MTV News. Yago has worked on award-winning documentaries on sexual health, the 9/11 attacks, fighting in Afghanistan, hate crimes, the 2000 and 2004 elections, and the war in Iraq. In 2005 Yago covered the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the devastating Kashmir Earthquake in Pakistan and India.
Throughout his career Yago has interviewed many politicians including George W. Bush, former President Bill Clinton, Senator John Kerry, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former Vice President Al Gore, and Senator John McCain, as well as other prominent figures including former Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III and Bill Gates. Yago has also interviewed a plethora of musicians and other celebrities. Yago's writing has appeared in Rolling Stone, Spin, and Vice magazines.
[edit] Personal information
Yago resides in Manhattan. In 2002 he was named one of the "25 hottest stars under 25" in Teen People. Nevertheless, Yago is considered the heartthrob of the MTV news cast, mainly among teenage girls and women who are part of the indie rock, punk rock, and emo music scenes[citation needed]. Yago, however, listens to artists such as The Beatles, Sonic Youth, Charlie Parker Sextet, Bright Eyes, The Rolling Stones, Flying Burrito Brothers, Iggy Pop, Gary Numan, and Johnny Cash[citation needed].
In March 2005, Yago's Manhattan apartment was vandalized and his silver Apple Powerbook G4 containing all the pictures from his travels, seven years worth of writing, and other prized possessions was stolen. It was never recovered.
In October 2006, Focus Features bought Yago's film script "Underdog". According to The Hollywood Reporter "'Underdog' is set in a small town in which one of its sons returns home in disgrace and must reconcile with the mother of a friend who died in Iraq. Meanwhile, another young soldier returns a hero, though the truth might be more murky'".
