Richard Engel was born during September 16, 1973. He spent most of his childhood in the Upper East Side of the Manhattan in the New York City. He is known to be an American author and he is also a Journalist. He was born to Peter and Nina. Peter, worked as Goldman Sachs Financier and the mother was running an antique store. The father is of Jewish origins and the mother is of Swedish origins.
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Education
Richard Engel went to Riverdale Country School and this was a highly competitive school in New York. Afterwards, he went in Stanford University and when he was still a student, he was writing for the Stanford Daily. He was unpaid Intern for CNN Business News in summer. He graduated in 1996 with the B.A in the International Relation of Stanford University.
Career
When he graduated, he went to work in Cairo and learned the Egyptian Arabic. He worked in Egypt for four years like Freelance reporter. He was working for The World and this is the joint production for the WGBH-Boston radio, Public Radio International and BBC World Service. He worked for Jane’s Defense Weekly, Reuters, USA today and AFP. During the 2003 invasion of US forces to Iraq, he was the worker of the ABC News. He was in charge of the August Presidential election of 2009 in Afghanistan. Engel continued to work alone an only American Television correspondent who stays in Baghdad as other media called their workers to go out of the Iraq. This frontline presence gave him the frontline sequences of events including the capture of Saddam and the elections. In his quest to gather stories, he travelled to the countryside of Iraq, dodging IED, ambushes, bombs and kidnapping to bring the stories to the world.
Two years later, Engal was made the Chief Foreign correspondent at NBC News. He managed to secure an interview with George Bush regarding the Israel parliament and the US policy regarding Iran. He interviewed David Petraeus, a US Army General on how the war in Iraq is progressing.
During the 2003 Iraq Invasion, Engel submitted war news to NBC. In mid-2006, he became a senior Middle East correspondent based in Beirut. With Israeli-Hezbollah waging war in Lebanon, his strategic location coupled with the regional language fluency provided a valuable asset.
He relocated to Kabul in 2009 to cover the national and Presidential elections. 2011 found him in Egypt again airing the Egyptian spring revolts. Here he covered the beginning of the Arab Spring Revolution with the peaceful vigils which took place, eventually forcing out the stronghold leader, Hosni Mubarak. As the revolts was spreading like the wildfire, he kept shuttling from Egypt to Libya. In Libya, he took several months exploring the rebel held areas. He even secured several interviews with the opposition on how to topple Mohamad Gadaffi. Before that was finally settled, he was at it again, setting post in Mogadishu, Somalia for the filming of The World's Most Dangerous City.
He compiled the Israel-Gaza battle of 2012, the disintegration of Syria and the aftermath of the prolonged war as well as the political turnaround in Egypt installing El Sisi.
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While working in Syria, Engel with other four crew member were kidnapped. They moved them around different locations and in such period that they were kept captive, they were tortured psychologically. Engel said that the abduction was done by the Shabiha group loyal of Al-Assad. The crew got released by the Ahrar Ash-Sham in five days. During this period, NBC News requested a blackout of the news about Engel on the concerns of his safety. The information was given when the US media reported that they were already released unharmed. After thorough investigations and several accounts, it was established that the kidnappers were actually Sunni gangs with affiliation to the Free Syrian Army brigade. There were three groups involved; the loyalist Shia group, and a rogue rebels opposed to Assad. Due to changing loyalties, it was not clear who actually facilitated the kidnap. However, this incident was widely reported by the New York Times and the Daily Beast. He recounted what took place in The Hostage of April 2013 in the Vanity Fair
Awards and Recognitions
In 2015, he was awarded the outstanding coverage of the Breaking News Story as well as the Fred Friendly First Amendment Award.
In 2014, he got the Pebosy Award on ISIS.
In 2013, he got the Yex McCrary Awards and John Chancellor Awards.
In 2012, he was awarded the Alfred Columbia University.
In 2011, he received the Daniel Pearl and the Overseas Press Club Award.
In 2010, he was issued with 3 News and Documentary Awards, Gracie Awards and OPC David Kaplan Awards.
uIn 2009, he received the George Foster Peabody Award, Edwards R. Murrow Award, Society of Professional Journalism Awards, 3 news and documentary awards.
In 2008, he received the Peabody Awards, Alfred I. duPont - Columbia Award, News & Documentary Awards.
In 2007, Richard Engel received the Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism. This was due to his reporting on the front-line, leading to the airing of his news article War Zone Diary
In 2006, his documentary on Somalia earned him an Emmy Award and again in the same year he received the RTNDA Edwards Award.
Personal Life.
He got married to his girlfriend, another student at Stanford but the marriage did not last too long and they divorced because of too many misunderstanding. .
In May, 2015, Richard Engel got married again to Mary Forrest, a producer. They got married in a civil ceremony in New York City Hall. Engel met with his current wife, when they were appearing at Martha Stewart show which was being produced by Forrest, five years ago. They have a baby boy born in 10 month ago (September 2015)..
Richard Engel is 5 feet 6 inch tall. The net worth is estimated to be around 4 million dollars. He is slim build, handsome and smart. He wears his hair always short. He has over 20 years’ experience in working in American Industry and it is not something surprising if he has a good annual salary. Even if the exact amount is not disclosed, it is expected that he gets around 1 to 3 million as his salary.
Last Modified: Apr 8, 2020
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