Oprah Winfrey | Bio, Career, & Gossip

Oprah

As the most powerful African American woman in today’s popular culture, Oprah has touched millions of hearts and changed just as many lives. She is a media giant, an actress, a philanthropist, and so much more.

Early Life

Born in rural Mississippi, Oprah Winfrey rose to fame from poverty and against many adversities. As a child of a teenage single mother, she was molested by multiple men in her young life before she eventually moved to Tennessee to live with her father Vernon.

It’s a less known fact that Oprah’s real name is actually “Orpah”, but many people mispronounced it as “Oprah” and the name stuck. Named after a biblical figure, Oprah came in contact with the church through her grandmother and was dubbed “The Preacher” for her extraordinary skills of memorizing and reciting Bible verses.

On her mother’s side, Oprah had two sisters and a brother, two of which died at a young age. Her only living sister Patricia was put up for adoption and Oprah didn’t meet her until 2010. Despite all her hardships, she was an exemplary Tennessee State University student.

Career

Oprah’s first job was with the local radio station in Tennessee while she was still a young high schooler. When she was a little older, she started co-anchoring evening news and quickly earned a chance to lead a daytime talk show and launch her own production company.

Between this pivotal moment and 2008, when she formed Oprah Winfrey Network, the “Queen of All Media” completely revolutionized daytime TV. She’s credited with helping both ethnic and sexual minorities get much-needed exposure in mainstream media and pop culture.

The revolutionary Oprah Winfrey Show is not her only tour-de-force, though. She is also a critically acclaimed TV and movie actress, a women’s rights advocate, a co-author, the greatest black philanthropist in American history, and a political force not to be reckoned with.

In the News

Speaking of politics, Oprah found herself in the limelight once again in November 2018, when some analysts started speculating that we might see her joining the presidential race in 2020. Oprah herself silenced the rumors shortly after, but her fans are hoping she will run, nevertheless.

And if she does, The Shade Room will be here to broadcast the message!

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