| T.J. Holmes | |
|---|---|
| Born | Loutelious Holmes Jr. August 19, 1977 West Memphis, Arkansas, U.S. |
| Education | University of Arkansas (B.A. Broadcast Journalism) |
| Occupation | journalist |
| Title | Reporter and News Anchor |
| Official website | |
Loutelious Ann Holmes Jr., better known as T. J. Holmes (born August 19, 1977) is a reporter and former news anchor on the weekend edition of CNN Newsroom, CNN Saturday Morning, and CNN Sunday Morning. Holmes joined CNN in October 2006. At one time, his co-anchor on CNN Newsroom was Betty Nguyen.
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Holmes was born in West Memphis, Arkansas. He was given the nickname "T. J.", short for "Telious Jr."
He graduated from the University of Arkansas with a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism.[1]
Holmes began his career at KSNF-TV in Joplin, Missouri, where he started as a producer, eventually becoming a general assignment reporter and then a weekend anchor and reporter.[1]
Holmes then served as a weekend anchor and reporter for KTHV-TV in Little Rock, Arkansas.
He was next an anchor for the San Jose NBC affiliate KNTV, NBC11. As an anchor and reporter for the station, Holmes served as a go-to correspondent for live reports across the Bay Area and California and traveled to Greece to cover the 2004 summer Olympics.
Holmes joined CNN in October 2006. As a CNN anchor, Holmes has reported many breaking news stories including the terrorist attacks on Mumbai, India; the Georgia-Russian conflict in 2008; the Virginia Tech shooting in Blacksburg, Virginia; the terrorist attacks at Scotland's Glasgow Airport in 2007; as well as the execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in 2006.[1]
He has also reported on scene during the US Airways Flight 1549 splash landing in the Hudson River in New York City in 2009; Pope Benedict XVI's first visit to the United States in 2008 by anchoring live from a Mass the Pope gave at Yankee Stadium; a freak downtown tornado in Atlanta, Georgia in 2008; and he reported live from Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain's first presidential debate.[1]
Holmes often subbed for Rick Sanchez, who hosted a show on CNN utilizing many different online social networking sites, including Facebook, Myspace and Twitter.
In December 2011, it was announced that Holmes was leaving CNN to work for BET. [2] His last broadcast for CNN was on Sunday, December 25, 2011. His final guest for CNN was Charles Barkley, former NBA player and current Turner Network Television (TNT) NBA Analyst.
Holmes was part of the Leon H. Sullivan Summit, a biannual gathering of world leaders, in 2008 and visited the United Republic of Tanzania. In the African country, he visited orphanages and impoverished communities. Many of these visits were reported on by CNN.[1]
He has also spent time volunteering in Costa Rica.[1]
Holmes hosted the National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC) Awards ceremony in April 2009.[3]
He portrayed one of the characters in the animated film Kasha and the Zulu King, a 2009 animated film project at Atlanta University Center that featured various Atlanta-area celebrities.[4]
Holmes was married to his college sweetheart, Amy Ferson; the two divorced in 2007. They have one teenage daughter together. In 2007, he briefly dated singer Rozonda Thomas, better known as "Chilli" from the band TLC.[5] He was married a second time, in March 2010, to Marilee Fiebig, an Atlanta-area attorney.[6]
In 2008, for CNN's Black in America special, Holmes wrote about his personal experiences with racism for the Anderson Cooper 360 blog,[7] writing:
"I haven’t come in contact with a lot of blatant racism in my life. Yes, I’ve been called the N-word. To be honest, it never really upset me because as soon as that word comes out of someone’s mouth, I’m pretty sure that I’ve won the argument. That person has just confirmed how ignorant they are. I don’t necessarily consider most people racist. I have, however, seen a lot of racial bias. What I mean by that is people don’t hate me because of the color of my skin, but they simply don’t see me as an equal. Some may say that by not seeing me as an equal, that’s the very definition of racism. Rather, I believe people have so many misconceptions and preconceived notions about black people. They make assumptions based on the color of my skin."
He also recounted a story about an incident at a Bay Area car wash when he owned what he described as a large, white SUV with chrome wheels and tinted windows:
"One day a man came over to me as I was washing my truck and said, “Man, I just gotta know. What do you guys do to have nice cars like that?” He was a nice enough guy and wasn’t really nasty when he asked the question. He truly seemed puzzled about how a young, black man could be driving such a nice car. He went on to ask me if I played for the San Francisco 49ers. Again, I’m 5′11″ and 165 lbs. No, I don’t play for the 49ers. The guy’s first thought at seeing a young, black man in a nice car was not that I could have gotten it through education and hard work. That is what I mean by bias."
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