Rita Cosby

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**Rita Cosby**

Born:	November 18, 1964 Brooklyn, New York
Occupation:	journalist, host

Rita Cosby (born November 18, 1964, in Brooklyn, New York, but raised in Greenwich, Connecticut) is a cable TV news personality at MSNBC. She is the recipient of three Emmy awards for investigative reporting.

Cosby previously worked as an anchor and reporter at Fox News. At Fox News, she hosted The Big Story Weekend Edition and Fox News Live with Rita Cosby. At the time of the disappearance of Chandra Levy, Cosby broke the story about Gary Condit's stewardess lover, Anne Marie Smith, and interviewed her for Fox. This almost certainly led to an increased suspicion of Condit and the end of his political career.

The daughter of a Danish mother and a Polish father who came to the U.S. after World War II, Cosby grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, where she attended Greenwich High School and freelanced for the local paper, she earned her bachelor's degree from the University of South Carolina in 1989. She has one brother named Alan.

Throughout her career, Cosby has gained a following because of her exclusive interviews. On her first day of work at MSNBC, Cosby landed an exclusive interview with members of the Jackson family as the verdict in Michael Jackson's criminal harassment trial. She was the first reporter to see prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay and has interviewed the late Serbian president Slobodan Milošević.

Her MSNBC show, Rita Cosby: Live & Direct, was canceled on June 29, 2006, because of lost viewers since its promising launch in August 2005. It last aired on July 6, 2006. The show's cancellation was the first by the new General Manager of MSNBC, Dan Abrams. Currently Rita Cosby serves as a host and special correspondent for MSNBC. She anchors a daily live one-hour show, in addition to being the primary anchor of top-rated “MSNBC Investigates” and heading up the “Rita Cosby Specials Unit,” which secures the most sought-after interviews and exclusive reports that air on both MSNBC and NBC network news programs.

Cosby is well known for her distinctive voice[1], which is usually described as "deep," "husky," or "raspy." Her vocal characteristics are unusual for a high profile female television personality and have inspired much discussion. As recently as 2001, her voice did not have these distinguishing characteristics.[2]

She is currently dating composer-producer Tomaczek Bednarek^{[citation needed]}.